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History and Government 
p 526 of Indiana 



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Copy : 



A Supplement to the Indiana Edition 
of the 

ELEMENTARY AMERICAN HISTORY AND 
GOVERNMENT 

BY 

James Albert Woodburn, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND POLITICS IN INDIANA UNIVERSITY 

AND 

Thomas Francis Moran, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ECONOMICS IN PURDtTE UNTVEBSITY 



LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 
PRAIRIE AVENUE AND 25TH STREET, CHICAGO 
Copyright, 1916, by Longmans, Green and Co. 



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HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 
OF INDIANA' 

HISTORY 

THE BEGINNINGS OF INDIANA: HOW GEORGE ROGERS 
CLARK SAVED THE NORTHWEST 

The French in Indiana, 1669. La Salle, one of the heroes of 
New France, was, so far as we can find out, the first white man 
to set foot upon the soil of what is now Indiana. In 1669, sixty- 
two years after the founding of Jamestown, he entered the ter- 
ritory and at about the same time he passed along its entire 
southern boundary. Two or three years later he probably crossed 
the northwestern corner of the State. He visited the territory 
several times after this date, and was probably on the Wabash 
River. In 1679 and 1680 his regular route of travel from Canada 
to Louisiana led him across Indiana by way of the Kankakee 
and St. Joseph Rivers. The portage (the carry between rivers) 
was made near the present site of South Bend. 

Early Settlements. The first settlement within the boundaries 
of the State of Indiana was made at Ouiatanon (pronounced 
Wee-ot'-a-non) on the Wabash River, about 1720. Ouiatanon 
was a French trading post and fort, and was located on the north 
bank of the river, about four miles west of where the city of 
Lafayette now stands. It contained a number of cabins in- 
closed in a stockade and was once an important post, because 
the Wabash River was an important part of the route between 
Canada and Louisiana. The post disappeared more than a 
century ago, but its approximate site is marked by a stone pillar 
erected by one of the local chapters of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution. 

• Copyright, J0i6, by Longmans, Green and Co. 
475 



476 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 




V'incennes, named from its founder, was the second post in 
the state, and was established about 1727. It was at first a 
trading post, then a fort, and remains to-day one of the most 
interesting places in the West. It is the county seat of Knox 
county and has a population of about 15,000 people. 

Later the early French settlers, especially about Vincennes, 
began to cultivate the soil. Their farming was of the rudest 
kind. Their plows were made entirely of wood with the exception 
of the points, which were of iron. There were no traces or whifltle- 
trees. Oxen were attached to the beam, not by a yoke about the 

neck, as is customary, but by 
means of a stick bound to the 
horns by thongs of rawhide. 
The oxen then drew the plow 
by pushing with their heads. 

A Change of Masters. As 
a result of the French and 
Indian War a new flag waved 
over Indiana. France had 
possession of the Mississippi 
Valley from the time of La 
Salle to the close of this war. By the treaty of 1763, however, 
she ceded to Great Britain all of her possessions east of the 
Mississippi with the exception of a small tract of land where the 
city of New Orleans now stands. This transfer of authority, 
however, made but little difference in the daily life of the French 
frontiersman. He continued to occupy his isolated posts and to 
trade with the Indians and, in some localities, to carry on 
agricultural pursuits in a simple way. 

Clark's Plan to Capture the Northwest. George Rogers 
Clark, a natural leader of men, conceived the idea of driving the 
British power from this region and of winning or forcing the 
Indians to live in peace with the Americans. He believed that 
the pioneer settlements could never have peace from Indian 
attacks until this were done. His plan was \h lead /«*»— army 

©ci.A4330()6 pc^j::^>- 

MAY 17 1916 '/ ^ 



A Plow and Yoke of the Early Days 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



477 



against the British, capture the forts and control the country 
from the Ohio to the Mississippi, and to the Great Lakes. To 
Clark's plans and to his adventurous daring in carrying them 
out, the United States owes its possession of the " Old 
Northwest." 

However, it was necessary that Clark first get the approval 
and authority of the State of Virginia, which claimed the right 
to govern the land which Clark 
proposed to invade. Also he 
needed men, arms, provisions, 
and money. Clark had the will 
and he soon found the way. He 
made up his mind to go back 
to Mrginia and secure authority 
and aid. That journey from 
Kentucky to Williamsburgh, the 
old capital of Virginia, showed 
the mettle of the man. The 
country was a wilderness without 
roads, or with nothing better 
than Indian trails. Clark and 
his companion, Gabriel Jones, 
had to find their way through 
woods and thickets. They swam 
the larger streams and often- 
times at night they lay down 
to sleep under the open sky with 
only the trees and stars above them for a shelter. After weary 
days and nights they reached Williamsburgh. Clark explained 
his plans to the Governor, Patrick Henry, who sympathized with 
him and gave him a letter to the Council. After delays and 
dilTiculties, the Governor and Council finally approved the plans 
of Clark. They promised him live hundred pounds of powder 
to help the western settlers to defend themselves. He also 
secured the recognition of Kentucky as a county of \'irginia, 




George Rogers CL.\RJi 

The daring frontier fighter was born 
in X'irginia in 1 752 and died in Ken- 
tucky in 18 18. " His great serv- 
ices to his country in making Ihe 
frontiers a safe dwelling place were 
overlooked by his countrymen, and 
he died in poverty and obscurity." 



478 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

and he was finally authorized to raise a force to set out on his 
perilous expedition to the Northwest. 

Clark's Instructions. Clark had to keep his plans a secret in 
order that the British and Indians might not hear of them and be 
prepared to resist. So he had two sets of instructions. The public 
ones authorized him to raise a force to defend the settlements of Ken- 
tucky ; the private ones authorized him to attack Kaskaskia, on the 
Mississippi in Illinois. With the assistance of Captain William 
Herrod, Captain Bowman and Captain Helm, he gathered to- 
gether 153 men on Corn Island in the Ohio River, near the present 
site of Louisville, and on June 24, 1778, set out with this little 
band to wrest the control of the Northwest from the British. 
His boats shot the falls of the Ohio and were rowed down the 
river for four days, to the mouth of the Tennessee. Here he 
landed his men and proceeded to march northwest across the 
country 120 miles to attack Kaskaskia (see map, page 158), 
On July 4, 1778, Clark's force arrived at the town, which he 
captured by surprise and without bloodshed. The people of 
Kaskaskia were rejoiced to learn that Colonel Clark did not 
intend to molest them nor to interfere in any way with their 
liberties. Their good priest. Father Gibault, explained this to 
them in the church and secured their allegiance to the American 
cause and many of these French settlers joined Clark's little 
army to fight against the British. 

The British Recapture Vincennes. The British were by no 
means ready to give up the country without further struggle. 
In the fall of 1778, the British General, Henry Hamilton, Lieu- 
tenant Governor of Detroit, raised a force of thirty regulars, 
fifty Canadian volunteers and four hundred Indians and pro- 
ceeded by way of the Wabash to Vincennes. When Hamilton 
with this force appeared before the fort and demanded its sur- 
render, Captain Helm was in the fort in command of one man; 
but standing over a loaded cannon with a burning match in his 
hand, he demanded recognition as a soldier before his surrender. 
This was conceded and wc have the funny story of Captain 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 479 

Helm marching his one man out and yielding his " command " 
with all due pomp and ceremony of war. Vincennes was again 
a British post. 

Clark was still at Kaskaskia and he knew but little of the 
situation at \'incennes, not even being certain that it had fallen 
to the British. Now appears upon the scene another man to 
whom Indiana and the Northwest owe a lasting debt of grati- 
tude. This was Colonel Francis Vigo. General Clark, Father 
Gibault, Francis \'igo — here were three noble co-workers for the 
American cause in the history of the " Old Northwest." Clark 
was looked to as an unconquerable soldier, skillful in strategy 
daring in battle; Father Gibault was looked to in matters of 
morality and religion, and Francis Vigo in matters of credit 
and fmance. It was Vigo who helped Clark with information, 
money, credit, and provisions, and without such help it is hard 
to see how the conquest of the West could have been achieved. 

Francis Vigo. Vigo was born in Sardinia, of Spanish parents, 
about 1747. He served in the Spanish army, drifted to America, 
became a fur-trader and general merchant, with headquarters 
at St. Louis. He met Clark at Kaskaskia and offered his sym- 
pathy and services to the American cause. Clark sent him 
to Vincennes to report on the condition of affairs there. Vigo was 
captured on the journey by hostile Indians and was made a 
prisoner in Fort Sackville, Vincennes, and was suspected of being 
a spy. He refused to accept his liberty when it was offered 
to him on condition that he would agree not to do any act during 
the war injurious to British interests. Father Gibault, then 
at Vincennes, interceded for Vigo. He went to the fort, with 
other citizens, and notified the British commander that the people 
would furnish no more supplies to the garrison until Vigo was 
released. Hamilton let him go on condition that he would " not 
do anything injurious to the British on his way to St. Louis.''^ 
Vigo started for St. Louis in a sort of dug-out canoe, with two 
voyageurs, going down the Wabash, down the Ohio, up the 

' Dunn's Indiana, p. 140. 



48o ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

Mississippi. He kept his word to Hamilton all the way to St. 
Louis. He was then free from his parole. He spent a few 
minutes in changing his clothes and getting some supplies and 
then started by boat for Kaskaskia to tell Clark about the sit- 
uation at Vincennes. 

Clark Decides on a Mid- Winter March. It was this informa- 
tion given by Vigo of the continued friendship of the Vincennes 
people for Clark's cause and of the plans of Hamilton and the 
British forces that led Clark to make his famous and terrible 
mid-winter campaign which resulted in the second and final 
capture of Ft. Sackville and Vincennes. Hamilton with So 
men in the fort had settled down in fancied security for the 
winter. He supposed his enemy's forces were too far away to 
reach him until settled weather in the spring. By .that time 
he was expecting to have re-enforcements, a large force of regulars 
and a thousand or more Indians. He could then march against 
Kaskaskia and capture or destroy Clark's force. 

In this desperate situation Clark decided to strike and sur- 
prise his foe. He acted with his usual promptness and daring. 
If he waited till spring Hamilton would probably take him ; so 
he would not wait, but march in mid-winter and take Hamilton. 
His men were too few to stand a siege, his situation too remote 
to call for assistance. He saw no other opportunity of securing 
the country. He could wait and be captured; he could go back 
home and save himself and his men. But no such thought was 
in harmony with the spirit of George Rogers Clark. If he saved 
himself he could not save the Northwest. He resolved upon 
another great adventure. 

He fitted out a Mississippi River boat, called the " Willing," 
a wonder to the inhabitants, " the like of which," Clark said, 
" had never been seen in the country before." On this he mounted 
eight guns and loaded forty-four men with ammunition and 
provisions. The boat was to take the men by the river route 
to Vincennes and connect there with another force which was 
to march overland. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



481 



The day after the " Willing " started down the river Clark's 
land forces started for Vincennes on their ever-memorable march. 
It was in the dead of winter, the 5th of February, 1779. There 
were 170 men in the company and they had to cover a distance 
from Kaskaskia to \'inccnnes of 240 miles, over the route to be 
traveled. As the little band of warriors started on their perilous 
march they received the blessing of Father Gibault. 




George Rogers Clark on the March to Vixcexxes 



The Perils of the March. It is impossible to describe the 
hardships of that winter march. It was not extremely cold, but 
there had been hea\7 rains, the rivers were out of their banks, the 
prairie bottoms were overflowed, and in many places the men had 
to march through icy water waist deep. Clark tells an interesting 
story of some of the hardships they suffered. There was a fourteen- 
year old drummer boy in one of the companies and a big ser- 
geant six feet two. Clark mounted the little drummer on the 
shoulders of the stalwart sergeant and gave orders to advance 



482 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

into the half-frozen water. The drummer beat the charge from 
his lofty perch and General Clark, with sword in hand, shouted, 
"Forward march!" Amused at the sight, the men obeyed the 
command, and plunged into the icy flood. Some fell exhausted, 
but their stronger comrades lifted them, holding their heads 
above the water, and dragged them on. Thus in spite of all 
obstacles they reached the higher land in safety. 

Thus the men were encouraged to march and to keep their 
powder dry. Clark encouraged them in another way, by placing 
in the rear twenty-five picked men under Major Bowman with 
orders to shoot any man who refused to march. 

Clark, now before Vincennes, knew that there was no pos- 
sibility of retreat. His little band of 170 men were in full view 
of a town that had upwards of 600 men in it, troops, inhabitants, 
and Indians. Clark could not wait for the men who were coming 
by boat. " The idea of being made prisoners was foreign to 
most every man, as they expected nothing but torture from the 
savages, if they fell into their hands. Our fate was now to be 
determined probably in a few hours. We knew that nothing 
but the most daring conduct would ensure success." ^ Thus 
spoke the daring soldier and leader of adventure. Clark knew 
that many of the inhabitants of Post Vincennes were friendly to 
his cause. He sent a French settler whom he had captured to 
tell the people of Vincennes that his " army " was about to 
attack the fort. He issued a placard by this messenger, warning 
the inhabitants, as true citizens, to keep quiet in their houses and 
stay off the streets. He urged those who were friends to the 
king to repair instantly to the fort and " join the hair-buying 
general and fight like men. Those who are true friends to liberty 
may depend upon being well treated." 

The Capture of Vincennes. The town was easily taken, 
as its people were willing. Tobacco, the Indian chief, offered 
one hundred warriors to help take the fort, but their services 
were declined. The garrison in the fort had no knowledge of 

1 Clark's Journal. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 483 

the approaching Americans till firing began. The attack began 
about dusk. The Americans surrounded the fort on all sides, 
the attacking force being sheltered by buildings, earthworks, 
and logs. Clark's frontier soldiers were crack riflemen. They 
could send a bullet through an auger hole, cut off a chicken's 
head, and sometimes split a bullet on an ax's edge. A silver 
dollar was as large a target as they ever needed. So Hamilton 
could not open his portholes without havoc to his gunners and 
his cannon could not be fired with any effect. The garrison 
became disheartened. 

A consultation was held, terms of surrender were agreed 
upon, the garrison became prisoners of war, and the stores and 
supplies fell to the Americans. 

At ten o'clock on the morning of February 25, 1779, Governor 
Hamilton and his garrison marched out; Clark and his men 
marched in, secured the arms, and hoisted the American colors. 
Fort Sackville v^as changed to Fort Patrick Henry in honor of the 
Governor of Virginia. Thus the Old Northwest fell into the 
possession of the Americans, as there was no other point at which 
the British could make a stand nearer than Detroit. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Write a brief account of Clark's conquest of the Northwest. Trace 
his march on the map. What services were rendered by Father Gibault 
and Francis Vgo? 

2. Where were the earliest settlements in Indiana? Who were the 
first explorers? 

3. What benefits came from Clark's conquest? 



484 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 AND INDIANA TERRITORY 

Several States Claimed the Northwest. The Northwest 
had been conquered. It had now to be governed. It will be 
remembered that Clark's expedition had been sent out by- 
Virginia and that State continued to claim the Northwest Terri- 
tory. Other States had claims to parts of it, too.^ Virginia 
called the Northwest Territory one of her counties — the " County 
of Illinois," and Governor Patrick Henry sent out Colonel John 
Todd to be the Territorial Governor and a Virginia court was 
held at Vincennes. But Virginia was soon persuaded to cede 
this land to the United States. It will be remembered that when 
the Union was being formed and the " Articles of Confederation " 
were submitted to the States for approval, Maryland refused to 
come into the Union until the western lands were given over to 
the General Government (see page 168). Congress sought to 
persuade the claimant States to do this, promising ^ to govern 
the territory in the common interest of all and to erect there 
" equal Republican states " to be admitted later to the Union on an 
equal footing with the other States. In this Congress expressed 
the wise policy toward our Territories that has been followed 
ever since. They were not to be held in subjection without the 
rights of self-government, but were to be made into States and 
admitted to the Union as soon as certain conditions were fulfilled. 

With this understanding, Virginia and the other States, be- 
tween 1780 and 1786, relinquished their claims to the Northwest, 
and this territory came under the control of the United States. 
Its common ownership became a strong bond of union among the 
States.'^ 

' New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut. * 

2 Oct., 1780. 

' Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, two men who afterwards became 
Presidents of the United States, signed the deed when Virginia granted this land 
to the United States. One of the conditions of this grant to the United States 
was that 150,000 acres of land should be given to Colonel Clark, his officers and 
men. This tract was laid off near the Falls of the Ohio and is known as " Clark's 
Grant." 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 485 

Ordinance of 1787. On July 13, 1787, the first government 
was provided for this territory by the famous Ordinance of 1787. 

This great Ordinance w^as a pattern for all subsequent acts 
organizing governments for United States Territories. This first 
" organizing act " created a civil government for the Territory, 
providing for a Governor with a term of three years, a Secretary 
with a term of four years, and three judges to serve during 
good behavior. The Governor and Judges were to proclaim 
such laws as they wished to choose from the laws of the original 
States, and these were to be in force until changed by a later 
Territorial Legislature. As soon as there were 5000 inhabitants 
in the Territory they were to be allowed to elect representatives 
to a General Assembly. The laws were then to be made by a 
House of Representatives, a Legislative Council, and the Governor.' 
Then in order " to extend the fundamental principles of civil 
and religious liberty which form the basis on which republics 
are erected," certain articles of compact were agreed to between 
the original States and the people who were to settle in the 
Northwest. 

Solenin Articles of Compact Made by Congress for the 
Settlers in the Northwest. These agreements were to remain 
forever unalterable unless repealed by common consent. These 
" articles of compact " guaranteed to the people of the North- 
west the following fundamental rights: 

1. That from the Northwest Territory there should be erected 
not fewer than three nor more than five States, and that whenever 
any of these States should have 60,000 free inhabitants it should 
be admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States — in keeping with the promise already made by Congress 
while that body was trying to persuade Virginia to give up her 
claims. 

2. Freedom of Religion. " No person demeaning himself in 
a peaceable and orderly manner shall ever be molested on 

1 The Council was to consist of five members chosen by Congress from a list 
of ten submitted by the House of Representatives of the Territory. 



486 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

account of his mode of worship in said territories." This pro- 
vided in the future of the Northwest, " a free church in a free 
State." 

3. Civil Liberty. The writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, 
fair representation of the people in the law-making body, moderate 
fines, no cruel punishments, the rights of liberty and property — 
these rights usually contained in a " bill of rights " (see page 167) 
were guaranteed to the people. 

4. Public Education. " Religion, morality, and knowledge 
being necessary to good government and the happiness of 
mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever 
encouraged." Here is the suggestion and the guarantee of the 
free common school system for the States of the Northwest. 
There was to be a free school as well as a free church. 

5. Free Soil. " There shall be neither slavery nor invol- 
untary servitude otherwise than in punishment for crime whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted." In this immortal 
language of the great Ordinance we find the promise that the 
new States of the Northwest should be free. The Ordinance 
of 1787 indicated the policy of the fathers and founders of the 
Republic to prevent the spread of human slavery. 

Governor St. Clair and the New Government. In 1787, 
Arthur St. Clair was made Governor of the Northwest Territory. 
His attention was given largely to the task of pacifying or fighting 
the Indians. He was directed to be friendly with the chiefs, 
to prevent their tribes from uniting if possible, and to do all he 
could to acquire their lands by purchase. His seat of govern- 
ment, or the capital, was at Marietta (Ohio) , but he was to go to 
Vincennes and Kaskaskia to organize counties and adjust land 
claims. He was soon called back to cooperate with General 
Harmar against the Indians. While he was absent on his notable 
Indian campaign, the Secretary of the Territory, Winthrop 
Sargent, acted as Governor. He went to Vincennes and laid out 
the County of Knox, embracing an extent of land since made 
into thirty counties. This was the first county organized in the 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 487 

State and it took its name from General Knox, who was then 
President Washington's Secretary of War. 

Early Conditions at Vincennes. The Governor and the 
Judges found moral conditions bad at Vincennes. Drunkenness 
and gambling were common and murders of frequent occurrence. 
The Acting Governor and the two judges, John Cleves Symmes, 
and George Turner, made, or announced, the first three laws 
for Indiana in 1791. These early laws had for their purpose 
to pre\'ent the sale of intoxicating drinks to Indians, to regulate 
the sale of liquors to soldiers, to suppress gambling, and to pre- 
vent the soldiers from selling their arms, ammunition, and clothing, 
which was being done, probably, either at gambling or to get 
money for the purpose of gambling. All gambling debts and 
contracts were made illegal. 

Difficulties of the Judges. The government of the Territory 
under the judges was almost absolute. If the judges could not 
find a suitable law in one of the older States they made one to 
suit themselves. They announced what the law should be and 
then tried offenders for violations. They had a hard time in put- 
ting their laws into operation. Courts had to be held at Marietta, 
Cincinnati, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Detroit. There were 
points in the circuit 1300 miles apart. " The roads were mere 
bridle paths, which led for hundreds of miles through the Indian 
country. There were no taverns and the nights were spent on 
the lonely trails, or in the dirty wigwams of the hospitable natives, 
or in the solitude of the forest with no protection but their 
blankets. In fair weather in spring and autumn the trips were 
pleasant, but in the heat of summer and cold of winter the hard- 
ships tried the endurance of the strongest. Judge Parsons lost 
his life in an attempt to swim a flooded stream on one of these 
trips.' 

Division of the Northwest Territory. In 1800, the North- 
west Territory was divided. This was found to be necessary 
if justice was to be administered. Think of judges holding 

' Esarey, History of Indiana, p. 141. 



488 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 



court in a district embracing such widely separate points as 
Kaskaskia, Marietta, and Detroit! In the western counties only 
one session of court had been held in a period of five years. 
Crime could not be punished and the region was becoming a 
resort for outlaws and criminals. The^ new dividing-line ran 

from opposite the 



mouth of the Kentucky 
River to Fort Re- 
covery (east of Jay 
County, Indiana) and 
then due north to 
Canada (see map). 

The land east of 
this line still retained 
the name of the 
"Northwest Terri- 
tory," while that to the 
west was called " Indi- 
ana Territory." The 
former embraced Ohio 
and a part of the 
present State of 
INIichigan, while the 
Indiana Territory em- 
braced all the rest of 
the " Old Northwest." 
Ohio was getting 
ready for Statehood 
and was admitted to 
the Union in 1803. 
Vincennes, the New Territorial Capital. Mncennes was 
made the capital of the new Indiana Territory and William 
Henry Harrison was made the first Territorial Governor. The 
executive Journal begins as follows: 

" St. Vincennes, July 4, 1800. This day the government of 




The Indiana Territory 

Indiana Territory was reduced in 1805 and again in 
1809. After the second reduction its boundaries 
were nearly the same as the present state boundaries. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



489 



the Indiana Territory commenced, William Henry Harrison hav- 
ing been appointed Governor, John Gibson, Secretary, William 
Clarke, Henry Vanderburgh, and John Griffin, Judges in and 
o\cr said Territory." 

Indiana Territory again Divided. In 1804 Governor Har- 
rison declared that the new Indiana Territory had a population 




The Old State House at Corydon 

This building was the Capitol of Indiana from 1813 to 1825. It was built of 
limestone from the adjacent bluffs and is a solid structure to-day. The walls 
of the first story are two and a half feet in thickness. The building is forty feet 
square. It is now the Court House of Harrison County. 



large enough to entitle it to become a Territory of the "second 
grade." That is, instead of the absolute government by Governor 
and judges a representative legislature should be elected and a 
Council (Senate) should be appointed. Congress consented to 
this in 1805 and Indiana was again divided, Michigan being set 
off as a separate Territory. In 1809 there was still another 
division and Illinois was set off and the Territory of Indiana was 



490 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

reduced essentially to the size and limits that it now has as a 
State. 

William Henry Harrison continued to act as Territorial 
Governor until 1812, when he was succeeded by Governor 
Thomas Posey, a veteran officer of the Revolutionary War. Posey 
was Governor of the Territory until Indiana was admitted to 
the Union in 1816. In 1813 the Territorial capital was changed 
from Vincennes to Corydon, now the county seat of Harrison 
County. This beautiful little town in the extreme southern part 
of the State, about twenty miles from the Ohio River, was chosen 
as being " nearer to the centre of population." Almost all of 
the white population at that time was in the southern part of the 
State. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. What great privileges were guaranteed to the people of the North- 
west by the Ordinance of 1787? How did this Territory finally come 
into the possession of the United States? 

2. Tell how the Northwest Territory was governed and indicate its 
later divisions. See the map page 488. 

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE INDIANS 

Indian Tribes in Indiana. The Indians living on the soil 
of Indiana belonged to the Aliami confederacy. The Piankeshaw 
tribe lived on the lower Wabash; next above them were the 
Vermillion villages; then came the Weas at what is now Lafayette; 
to the west were the Shockeys and Kickapoos on the prairies; 
on lower Eel river were the Miamis proper; north of them among 
the lakes were the Pottawattomies; around Fort Wayne were 
the Tightwees; and on the Mississinewa were the Munsees. 
All these were kindred tribes and lived together in peace. 

While the United States asserted its right to control the ter- 
itory and make laws for it, the Indians claimed the ownership 
of the land. White settlers were not allowed to buy land directly 
from the Indians, but the Government sought to get the Indians 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



491 



by treaties to yield the land, and then it would be sold to the 
whites who wished to build their homes in the West. As the 
whites increased in number, the Indians felt that they were being 
forced off their hunting grounds, or cheated out of their rights, 
and war broke out. 

Wayne's Victory at Fallen Timbers, 1794. Fort Wayne 
Built. The President sent General Anthony Wayne (" Mad 
Anthony "), a hero of the Revolution, to the Ohio Valley to 




Fort Wayne about 1S12 



collect and train an army to conquer the Indians. After 
three years of fighting, he succeeded in completely defeating the 
Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794. 
The English had promised to support the Indians, but at the 
last refused, leaving the Indians alone to sustain their defeat. 
All the towns and fields of growing corn were destroyed. Gen- 
eral Wayne built a strong fort where Fort Wayne now stands, 
October, 1794, and left enough soldiers there to compel the 
Indians to behave. 



492 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

Treaty of Greenville, 1795. The next summer, at Fort 
Greenville, Wayne made a treaty with the Indians at which they 
gave up all land south of a line from the headwaters of the Cuy- 
ahoga River to Fort Recovery, and then to the mouth of the 
Kentucky just above Madison. This was known among the 
pioneers as the Greenville Treaty Line. 

Missionary Work among the Indians: the Curse of Strong 
Drink. Following the Treaty of Greenville for a period of 
fifteen years, from 1795 to 18 10, the Indians of Indiana were 
quiet and peaceful. From year to year they ceded their lands 
to the government and accepted homes beyond the Mississippi 
River; in 1803 the Piankeshaws, in 1809 the Kickapoos and 
Shockeys, sold out and went west. The government paid them 
fairly good prices and spent large sums of money trying in \'ain 
to teach them the arts of peace. Blacksmiths and other artisans 
were sent among them to teach them to work. They wished to 
hunt and fish and wander over the land, but not to cultivate the 
soil and make settled homes under law. The Catholics, Mora- 
vians, Baptists, and Quakers, established missions among them, 
teaching the Indian children. Under this influence they were 
making some progress. They planted orchards, cultivated gar- 
dens, raised cattle, hogs, and especially horses. The great curse 
of the Indians of that time was the whiskey sold to them by 
unprincipled traders. Governor William Henry Harrison made 
every effort to stop this sale but failed. The tribesmen would go 
hundreds of miles for the bad whiskey and trade for it anything 
they possessed, even to their guns and clothing. The drunken 
Indians, now turned into " bad Indians," then committed all 
kinds of crimes against the settlers. There were bad whites in 
the country and sometimes these bad men. would lure the Indians 
into the towns, get them drunk and then rob them. If bad and 
drunken Indians killed some white men, the whites would retal- 
iate and kill a lot of Indians; and thus bad blood was aroused 
between the red men and the settlers. Many of the whites 
seemed to think that " the only good Indian was a dead Indian." 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 493 

They wanted the Indian lands and they were too often ready 
to cheat them or drive them off or kill them. Hut on the other 
hand there were a number of noble white missionaries who lived 
among the Indians, shared their hardships, tried to help them 
and teach them better ways of living.' 

A New War Spirit. By 181 r a generation of Indians and 
settlers had grown up who had forgotten the hardships of the 
war from 1790 to 1795 ^^^ ^^^Y began to talk again of w-ar. The 
settlers were crowding over into the Indian hunting grounds all 
along the line. In 1809 Harrison purchased all the Indian 
lands up the Wabash to Parke and \'ermillion counties, so that 
Indians might not hunt south of a line running from Montezuma 
to Brownstown and from thence to Fort Recovery. This was 
known for many years as the Indian Boundary Line, the west 
part of it being called the " Ten o'clock " line — being the direc- 
tion in which a shadow would fall at ten o'clock at a certain 
time of year. 

Tecumseh and the Prophet. Tecumseh and his brother 
the Prophet, two Shawnee warriors, made their home at Ander- 
sontown, near the present city of Anderson, and began to gather 
around them all the dissatisfied warriors. The Prophet was a 
famous preacher and reformer. Indians came hundreds of miles 
to hear him " prophesy," or preach. He charged all the mis- 
fortune of the Indians to the white men, and gradually aroused 
his hearers to the point of war. 

On the order of Governor Harrison the Prophet was com- 
pelled to leave Andersontown, and then he made his home on 
the bluff about live miles east of Lafayette on the north side of 
the Wabash. This village, known as the " Prophetstown," 
became the gathering place for all the Indians who opposed 
the settlers. 

Fort Harrison. President Jefferson became alarmed at the 
reports of Harrison and sent him a regiment of regular troops 

1 Read the story of Isaac McCoy and his wife among the Indians, Esarey's 
History of Indiana, pp. 230-232. 



494 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

to defend Vincennes. With these and the Indiana militia and 
a few Kentucky volunteers, 910 in all, General Harrison set 
out from Fort Knox, just above Vincennes, September 26, 181 1, 
to destroy the Indian town. Near Terre Haute he stopped long 
enough to build Fort Harrison and then pushed on up the Wabash 
Valley. On the night of November 6, Harrison camped about 
two miles from the Prophetstown. 

The Battle of Tippecanoe. On the morning of November 7, 
before daybreak, the Indians under Tecumseh attacked Har- 
rison's army and kept up the bloody battle till after daylight. 
The fighting was furious, hand to hand in many places. The 
Indians were beaten off after daylight, but not until they had 
killed 62 white men and wounded 126. The Indians left 37 
dead upon the field. It was a costly victory, but the Indians 
were completely defeated. Harrison's victory at Tippecanoe 
broke the Indian power in Indiana. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Name the principal Indian tribes in early Indiana. Give an account 
of the wars with the Indians indicating the significance of (a) Wayne's 
victory at Fallen Timbers, {b) The Treaty of Greenville, (c) Tecumseh 
ajad the Battle of Tippecanoe. 

2. How did the white settlers treat the Indians? What did the mis- 
sionaries do for them? How were their lands obtained by the whites? 
Did the Indians have a right to keep the land? 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE STATE 

The Birth of the State. The birthday of Indiana was December 
II, 1816. That was the day of her admission to Statehood, 
and after that her Representatives and Senators could take their 
seats in Congress. 

In 181 5 a census of Indiana Territory was taken and the 
returns showed that there were 63,897 white inhabitants. Ac- 
cording to the Ordinance of 1787 a population of 60,000 entitled 
the Territory to Statehood. Accordingly, the Territorial Legis- 




S7 L..ii/iiu.lc Weal fruiii 80 lirc.ii»kb 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 495 

lature sent a petition to Congress asking that body to authorize 
the formation of a new State. Jonathan Jennings, who was 
Indiana's Territorial delegate in Congress, presented this petition, 
and " good old Dennis Pennington," of Corydon, was the Speaker 
of the Indiana House whose name was signed to the petition. 

Congress consented to this request, and on April 18, 1816, 
the President signed the " enabling act " for Indiana. On 
May 13 the voters of Indiana elected delegates to a convention 
for the purpose of drawing up a constitution. 

The Constitution was Formed. This convention met at 
Corydon, the Territorial capital, on June 10, 1816, and after 
deliberating nineteen days, on June 29, declared the new con- 
stitution for Indiana adopted. Usually a convention in making 
a constitution will submit the document to the people to be 
approved or rejected at th'e polls, but in this case the convention 
at Corydon declared the constitution in operation and set August 
5, 1816, for the election of the first State officers. 

In the August election Jonathan Jennings of Clark County 
was elected Governor, Christopher Harrison of Washington 
County was elected Lieutenant Governor, and William Hendricks 
of Jefferson County was elected as Indiana's Representative in 
Congress, only one Representative being allotted to the State 
owing to its small population. 

Governor Jennings called the General Assembly of the State 
to meet at Corydon in November, and that body elected as the 
first United States Senators from Indiana James Noble of Franklin 
County and Waller Taylor of Knox County. The Legislature 
also elected William H. Lilly as Auditor of State, and Daniel 
C. Lane as Treasurer of State, and named three Electors to cast 
the electoral vote of the new State for James Monroe for President. 

Such were the steps in the creation of the new State of Indiana. 
The work was all done by November, 1816, and a month later 
Congress pronounced the work to be good and passed the final 
act of admission, which was signed by President Madison De- 
cember II, 1816. 



496 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 




The Convention at Corydon. The Constitutional convention 
at Corydon was an historic assembly. Forty-three delegates were 
elected from 13 counties. They met during the warm days of 
June, and many of their sessions were held under the wide- 
branching limbs of a great elm which still stands and is one of 
the historic sights of the State. Jonathan Jennings was President 
of the convention and William Hendricks was the Secretary. 

The convention was com- 
posed mainly of clear- 
headed patriotic men of 
good common sense who 
believed in the princi- 
ples of the Declaration 
of Independence and 
the Constitution of the 
United States. Our first 
constitution, which they 
drew up, was a short 
and simple document. 
It contained a " bill of 
rights " and set out a 
framework of govern- 
ment. A large part of its 
provisions were copied from the constitutions of Ohio and Ken- 
tucky, just as those constitutions had been copied from the 
constitutions of Massachusetts and Virginia. So we see the 
institutions and laws of the old States were being transplanted 
to the West. The convention finished its work in less than three 
weeks. The members wanted to get home to their harvests 
and to help get the new constitution into operation. 

The New Purchase, 1818. When Indiana was admitted to the 
Union the Indians still had claims to fully two thirds of the lands 
of the State. In 1818 Governor Jennings was appointed by the 
United States Government as one of three commissioners charged 
with the task of buying more land from the Indians. The com- 



The Constitutional Elm 

A large part of the work of the constitutional 
convention which drafted the Indiana consti- 
tution of 18 16, was done in the shade of a 
spreading elm, which still stands at Corydon. 
The above picture was made from a recent 
photograph. - 



IJISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



497 



missioners held a conference with the Indians at St. Mary's, 
Ohio, and succeeded in purchasing nearly all the land south and 
east of the Wabash, bounded on the southeast by the "ten o'clock 
line," running from a point in Jackson County to a point on 
the Wabash in V'ermillion County. From this great tract of 
land, called the " New Pur- 
chase," thirty-seven coun- 
ties have since been made. 
For it the Indians received 
$13,000 in a lump sum with 
a promise of $S,ooo annually 
thereafter. Soon afterwards 
these Indian tribes began 
their long march to the 
newer frontier beyond the 
" Father of Waters." 1 

New Harmony : The 
Rappites and the Owens. 
One of the early noted set- 
tlements in Indiana was at 
New Harmony, on the banks 
of the lower Wabash. In 
1814, the Germans who 
lived in the " Harmonie 
Community " in Pennsyl- 
vania, sold their homes 
and bought a large tract 

of 17,000 acres in Posey county. They cleared the land 
and built up mills and factories and vineyards and farms. 
From their leader, Frederick Rappe, they were called " Rap- 
pites." They sold their New Harmony settlement, grown to 
30,000 acres, to Robert Owen in 1825 for $150,000. Owen 

^ Baynard R. Hall, the first professor in the State University, wrote a book 
entitled " The New Purchase, or Seven and a Half Years in the Far West," which 
tells much of interest about early conditions in Indiana. 




Indiana in 1818, Showing the 
Purchase " 



New 



498 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

was a rich manufacturer and philanthropist of Scotland and is 
known as the " father of modern socialism." He wished to 
relieve the hard condition of the factory laborers. He would 
establish a community in the far west of America where land 
was cheap, in which the laborers would receive the products of 
their toil, where there would be no rich and no poor, where all 
the goods and money would come into a common store and where 
all the toilers would share alike in having their needs supplied. 
It was an attempt at communism. It did not last long on the 
communistic basis, but New Harmony came to be a centre of 
influence in the state. Libraries and schools were established, 
industry was cultivated, the natural sciences advanced, and a 
strong intellectual community grew up. Three noted sons of 
Robert Owen became leaders in the State: David Dale Owen, 
a State Geologist; Col. Richard Owen, scientist, soldier, and 
professor in the State University; and Robert Dale Owen, the 
most distinguished of the three, a legislator, statesman, and 
diplomatist. It was largely through the efforts of Robert Dale 
Owen in the legislature (in 1846-47) that property rights for 
women were secured in Indiana. ^ 

Moving the State Capital. The tide of settlement was now 
setting toward the north. Now that the New Purchase had 
cleared the way and cheap land could be had from the Govern- 
ment, the " movers " from the south were pushing up farther and 
farther from the Ohio River; new counties were being laid out, 
and immigrants were coming from New England, New York and 
Pennsylvania into the northern part of the State. It was seen 
by all that a new capital would have to be decided upon nearer 
the centre of population. In 1819 Governor Jennings advised 

* There are 6tting monuments to two of the Owens at the State House in 
Indianapolis. The women of Indiana erected the one to Robert Dale Owen, and 
the other was presented to the State by surviving Confederate prisoners for the 
kind treatment they received from Professor Richard Owen while he was the 
Colonel in command of the Federal prison in Indianapolis during the Civil War. 
It is doubtful whether in the history of the world any other monument was ever 
prompted from such a motive or for such a reason. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



499 



the General Assembly that " moving time " had come. A com- 
mission of ten men were appointed to select a new site for the 
capital. The men examined several places, but finally decided 
in favor of " the mouth of Fall Creek on the West Fork of White 
River," where the city of Indianapolis now stands. In 1824 the 




The Indiana State Capitol Building at Indianapolis 

The Indiana Capitol is located on Washington Street and occupies nearly ten 
acres of land. It is 496 feet long, 285 feet wide, and the top of the dome is 234 
feet high. The Icgiasltive halls and the oflices of the state officials are in this 
building. The statue of Thomas .-\. Hendricks is in the foreground in this picture. 

change was made while Indianapolis was only a " capital in 
the wilderness." General John Carr, the agent for the new 
town, conducted the first land sales and sold about three hundred 
lots at an average price of $125 apiece. Sites have since sold 
for nearly a million dollars which could then have been bought 
for S200 or $300. Samuel Merrill, the Treasurer of State, trans- 



500 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

ported his family and the books and effects and money of the 
State in a wagon drawn by a four-horse team, with bells on the 
horses, over the wilderness roads from Corydon to Indianapolis. 
The story of that drive is one of the interesting stories of early 
Indiana life.^ 

The State had now fairly started upon its career and it was 
destined within the next forty years to witness a marvelous 
growth. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Tell how Indiana became a State. Locate Vincennes and Corydon. 
Tell when the capitals were changed. Give an account of the convention 
at Corydon. 

2. What was the " New Purchase "? 

3. Give an account of the life at New Harmony and the work of the 
Owens. 

AN ERA OF EXPANSION— 1820-1860 

The Growth of the State : the Westward Movement. Follow- 
ing the War of 181 2, about the time Indiana was admitted to the 
Union, a great tide of migration set in toward the West. This 
movement was one of the most important events in American 
history. The frontier was moving westward, the Indians were 
being pushed back, the area of civilization was widening. New 
homes and new States were being built up in a new " Western 
World." The men and women who crossed the mountains to 
build their homes in the wilderness cut themselves off from the 
old world and faced hardships and dangers in the same spirit 
th^t moved Columbus when he sailed the unknown seas. But 
these early pioneers who settled in Indiana and the West brought 
with them, for the most part, respect for law, reverence for re- 
ligion, and a love of civil and religious liberty. They were the 
advance guard of civilization, the true conquerors of a new world. 

The rapid advance of Indiana and the West from 1820 to 
i860 seems almost too marvelous for belief. In 1820 the pop- 

1 See the Magazine of I.diana History for March, 1916. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 531 

Illation of Indiima was 147,000; it had doubled in four years. 
By 1S30 it had more than doubled again. It was doubled again 
in another ten years, and in the two decades from 1840 to i860 
the population of the State was again doubled, and at the opening 
of the Civil War it stood at 1,360,000 — about twice the population 
of the largest of the thirteen original States at the close of the 
Revolution. Within the memory of middle-aged men the wilder- 
ness had been transformed into cities and towns and cultivated 
farms under a settled and well-ordered State. 

How the Settlers Came. The movers and settlers came in 
a steady stream ; most of them in their wagons with their house- 
hold goods. Some came across the Ohio from Tennessee and 
Kentucky; others down the Ohio from western Virginia and 
Pennsylvania; others again through the Cumberland Gap from 
the Carolinas; while others came across the country and by the 
Great Lakes from New York and New England. They were 
attracted by cheap lands and the opportunity to hew out a new 
career. Here the poor and oppressed from foreign lands could 
fmd escape from hard conditions and a chance to own their own 
homes. The lands were j)ractically free. 

Cheap Government Land. In 1802 Congress provided for 
selling the government land in blocks as small as 320 acres at 
$2.00 an acre, and allowing payment by installments after the 
immigrant had settled upon the land and improved it. After 
1820 the price of government land was lowered to $1.25 an 
acre. There was plenty of it; the earliest comers had a vast 
unbroken area from which to choose. Many of the early settlers 
who could afford it acted upon the advice of Alandy Means to 
her old man — to " git a plenty while you are gitten." 1 

So the pioneers came to get these lands and to improve their 
condition and that of their children. The panic of 1819 sent 
jobless workmen and bankrupt debtors to the West in droves, 
and Indiana received her share of the home-seekers. They were 
following the advice given by Horace Greeley a little later, " Go 
' The " Hoosier Schoolmaster." 



502 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

west, young man, and grow up with the country." Many of 
these " movers " were poor, some of them were coarse and igno- 
rant, but many of them were educated and intellectual, and most 
of them were ready for hard work. They proved themselves 
worthy founders of the State. History cannot adequately tell 
of the drudgery, and hardship, and sacrifice shown among the 
pioneer mothers and fathers in the great task of building the State. 

Log Cabin Days. The pioneers lived at first in humble 
homes, many of them in log cabins. The log cabin in the woods 
is a familiar picture. It was made of rough logs often laid with 
the bark still on. Sometimes the logs were " barked," or hewed, 
on all four sides and were bound together by gigantic dovetailing 
called " notching." The spaces in the wall between the logs 
were "chinked"; that is, a yellow clay was splashed in with 
the hand and allowed to harden in the sun. The roof of the 
cabin was made of thick rickety shingles called "clapboards"; 
these, when clapped down, were held in place by long poles laid 
along the roof and kept apart by shorter pieces fastened between. 
The bare earth sometimes formed the floor of the poorer cabins, 
but the better ones had a puncheon floor — large slabs of wood 
three feet wide and three or four inches thick, resting on timbers 
called stringers or sleepers. In some cabins there was an attic 
reached by a rough ladder, or by pegs fastened in the wall. For 
a window a part of a log was omitted on one side of the cabin 
which, with the cracks in the wall, gave plenty of ventilation, 
though on cold nights the window space might be closed against 
the wind by a blanket or a clapboard shutter. 

The cabin usually had but one room, with perhaps a " lean-to " 
— an outer shed, for the hired help about the place. The room 
contained beds, a table, " stick chairs," and some three-legged 
stools, and perhaps the old spinning wheel and a trundle-bed 
for the children. The big open fireplace occupied almost all 
of one side of the room, leading out to the chimney made of sticks 
daubed with clay. Over the mantel were the rifles and the 
powder horns, and on the walls hung the coon-skins and other 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 503 

hides, with the clothes hanging on the pegs. About the fire- 
place was the ironware^the kettle, the pot, the skillet, and 
the Dutch oven. 

The door of the cabin was fastened by a heavy latch or bar 
of wood which could be lifted from without by a leather string 
which passed through a hole above in the door. At night, as a 
safeguard against dangerous prowlers, the latch-string would 
be pulled in, but when the " latch-string was out " the cabin 
home could be entered and visitors were welcome. The expres- 
sion " the latch-string is out " has come down to us from log- 
cabin days as a sign of hospitality, and there were never more 
hospitable homes than these humble cabins in the forest. 

Lincoln's Life in Indiana. It was in one of the poorest of 
these humble cabins that Abraham Lincoln grew up in Indiana. 
Thomas Lincoln, his father, had come from Kentucky and settled 
in Spencer County in 1816. The boy, Abe, was not yet eight 
years old. The Lincolns settled in an unbroken forest and to 
make a " clearing " was the first task before them after finding 
a temporary shelter. For the first winter the Lincolns lived in 
a " half-faced camp," a kind of rude shelter made of saplings 
or of poles stuck in the ground, with only the earth for a floor, 
and leaves and brush for a roof. Only three sides were enclosed, 
while the fourth side was left open to the weather. At this open 
side they built their fire to keep the enclosure warm and to keep 
the wolves away. The fire must not be allowed to go out, for 
they had no matches and it would be hard to strike fire again 
with flint and steel, or to go a half mile to the nearest neighbor 
to borrow some live coals. 

For their second winter the Lincolns built a real log cabin, 
but of a poor kind, as it was without floor or window or door. 
There was a loft where the children slept, on a bed of leaves or 
on the skins of wild animals. While still a boy, Abraham wielded 
the axe, which he continued to wield till he was twenty-three. 
He helped clear the land, plowed, and harvested, and split rails, 
and tore out the stumps, or ran a ferryboat, and all this outdoor 



504 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

exercise gave him a powerful physique. For the few months* 
schooling which he received he walked to a log schoolhouse 
four miles from his home. The schoolhouse had a puncheon 
floor, greased paper for window panes, and rude boards for 
seats. At night he read by the light of the fireplace such books 
as he could find and they were very few — the Bible, Aesop's 
Fables, and Weems' " Life of Washington." Such was the 
boyhood life of Abraham Lincoln in the backwoods of early 
Indiana. 

Roads and Transportation. Civilized men cannot live without 
roads by which they can trade with one another. The settlers 



UNITED STATES MAIL 




Four-horse Stage Coach 
From an advertisement in the Indiana Jotirnal, 1832. 

could carry goods by fiat-boats down the rivers, but they could 
not bring heavy goods to their country communities and inland 
towns by the river routes. Their most pressing business problem 
was to build roads and find easier means of communication, since 
they could not live entirely to themselves. 

The Early Stage Lines. In 1820 there were but few miles 
of highway in the State. In that year stage coaches were put on 
the road from New Albany to Vincennes. In the summer of 
1828 the first stages were started from Madison to Indianapolis, 
the lumbering coaches making the trip over the dirt roads in 
four days. In 1838 a line of stages was started between Logan? 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



505 



port and Indianapolis. By 1S40 one couJd reach nearly all parts 
of the State by coach. 

The National Road. When Indiana was admitted, the 
United States promised to give 5% of the proceeds from the sale 
of public lands to be used in road building. The National Road 
was laid out by the United States from Cumberland, Maryland, 
to St. Louis. The part of it in Indiana from Richmond to Terre 
Haute was surveyed in 1828 and was finished ten years later. 
For many years this was the finest road in the State. 

Hauling Freight. Transporting freight was a hard problem. 
From 1S20 to 1S40 heavy goods were hauled from lake or river 
ports to the inland towns by means of horses, or more frequently 
by o.x teams. For days and even for weeks the patient oxen, 
four or six yokes to the wagon, plodded their weary way through 
miles of forest where the sun hardly ever dried the muddy roads — 
from Madison to Indianapolis, from Chicago to La Fayette, 
from Toledo to Fort Wayne, from New Albany to Salem, Paoli, 
and Bloomington. The streams, as we have said, were the chief 
means of marketing Indiana produce. Every neighborhood had 
its " port," or " landing," where, during the summer, flat-boats 
were built, and in the early spring when the water was high, 
these were loaded with wheat, flour, chickens, pork, beef, venison, 
or other produce and floated down to New Orleans. 

Up-stream navigation with llatboats was impossible. The 
flat-boat men would sell their vessels at New Orleans and take 
a steamboat back, or sometimes they would " hike " back through 
the forest. At times they tried to " pole their boats " up-stream, 
and when this failed the up-river towns sought to get small steam- 
boats that could reach their " ports." In the decade from 1825 
to 1S35 little steamers visited Indianapolis, Lafayette, Logans- 
port, and South Bend. But low water came, there were snags 
and sand-bars in the river bed, and the uncertainties of the trip 
were so great this method had to be given up. In 1819 the Gen- 
eral Assembly sought to provide a system of opening up the 
larger streams to navigation. Low bridges and mill dams were 



5o6 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

forbidden, and the men of the neighborhood were required to 
turn out and clear the streams of stones, logs, and driftwood, some- 
what like "working the roads" in later days. When a new town 
was being laid out the agent for selling lots would usually adver- 
tise that the stream on which the town was located was " navi- 
gable." Salt Creek in Monroe County was so advertised, and 
White River to sixteen miles above Muncie. 

The Wabash and Erie Canal. The people of Indiana were 
in favor of " internal improvements " by the National Government. 
As early as 1824 the State began to petition Congress for a land 
grant to aid in building a system of roads and canals. In 1827 
Congress passed an act granting a strip of land over two sec- 
tions v^^ide on either side of a canal to be built from the navigable 
waters of the Maumee to the navigable waters of the Wabash. 
In 1828 the Indiana Legislature accepted the gift and began 
digging the canal. This was the Wabash and Erie canal. 

When this was done a clamor arose for roads and canals in 
other parts of the State. The agitation was kept up till 1836, 
when a great system of roads, railroads, and canals was agreed 
upon, — a system that would cost over $13,000,000. Railroads, 
turnpikes, and canals were to connect the chief centres of the 
State. The people were wild with delight at the prospect. 
Commissioners went East to borrow money on the credit of 
the State, and hundreds of workmen were set to work digging 
the canals and building the roads. For three years the busy 
work went on, but the woeful panic of 1837 caused a crash in all 
such enterprises, and after spending $14,000,000, the State found 
itself bankrupt with none of its roads and canals finished.^ 
The problem of transportation remained unsolved until the rail- 
roads came, chiefly in the decade between 1850 and i860. The 
first railroad in the State, from Madison to Columbus and 
Indianapolis, was opened in 1847. 

1 For a time Indiana was on the verge of repudiating its debts but the honor 
and good name of the State were saved by the honest citizenship of the time, poor 
as the people were. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 507 

Banks and Money, riic early settlers did not have much 
money. They got their living directly from the land. The 
local trade was mostly by barter. The shoemaker would sell 
his shoes for butter and eggs and bacon, and the storekeeper 
would sell his sugar and cotTee and " store tea " (not sassafras) 
and calico and other " store goods " and take his pay in produce, 
including " sang " ^ and wood-chopping, which were common 
articles of merchandise.^ If a man wanted some gold or silver 
money, he would have to sell a horse or a cow or ship his heavy 
produce down the river. The people were in need of good i^anks. 
Some merchants issued paper money on their own credit, which 
circulated in their neighborhood, but, of course, it would not 
circulate in the East, nor could it be accepted at the Govern- 
ment Land offices in payment for land. 

The State Bank. To remedy this evil, a State Bank was 
established in 1834, with headquarters in Indianapolis and branches 
in a number of towns throughout the State. Its capital stock was 
$2,500,000, of which the State owned half. Samuel Merrill was 
for many years the President of this bank. It was well man- 
aged and furnished the State a good sound currency. During 
its life of twenty-five years it earned for the State alx)Ut $3,750,000, 
a large part of which was turned over to the present common 
school fund of Indiana. 

Beginnings of Higher Education: the Indiana Seminary. 
But the people of Indiana were not thinking merely of lands 
and roads and banks and material things. They were interested 
in things of the spirit — in education and religion. 

Near the edge of the " New Purchase " at the new town of 
Bloomington (laid out in 1818) there was established in 1820 
by Act of the State Legislature the " Indiana Seminary." This 
was the beginning of Indiana University. In 1828 the " Indiana 
Seminary " was changed by the Legislature to " Indiana College " 
and Dr. Andrew Wylie was called from Washington and Jefferson 

1 Ging-seng, which was dug and shipped in quantities. 

2 The axe and the rifle were the implements of civilization. 



5o8 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 



College in Pennsylvania to be the first President. In 1838 the 
legal title of this institution was changed from Indiana College 
to " Indiana University." 

In thus fostering higher education Indiana was acting in 
harmony with the principle on which the State was founded. 
The Ordinance of 1787 suggested it. In 1806 the Territorial 
Legislature established Vincennes University and Congress 




Indiana College, 1836 



donated a township of land located in Gibson County for its 
benefit. In the " enabling act " of 1816 Congress offered, and 
the State accepted, another township of land for the benfit of a 
State Seminary.! The State in 1816 expressed in its first con- 
stitution the conviction that " knowledge and learning are essen- 
tial to the preservation of free government " and that " the 
advantage of education should be extended throughout the 
country"; the first fundamental law of the State followed with 
these memorable words: " It shall be the duty of the General 
Assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by 

1 This was located by President Monroe just south of Bloomington. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 509 

law for a general system of education, ascending in regular grada- 
tion from township schools to a State University, wherein tuition 
shall be gratis and equally open to all." This has been the 
spirit of the State from its beginning. Its schools and uni- 
versities have been a credit to its history and are novV among 
the best in the United States. Purdue University and the State 
Normal School, both models of their kind, were established at 
later dates. 

Church Colleges. Not only the State, but the churches wierc 
interested in promoting learning. 

The Presbyterians, who always insisted upon an educated 
ministry, founded Hanover College in a little log cabin on the 
Ohio in 1827, and in 1833 Professor Caleb Mills opened Wabash 
College at Crawfordsville under Presbyterian control, with twelve 
students in attendance. Mills gave the rest of his life to educa- 
tion in Indiana and exerted great influence in promoting the 
cause of common school education. In 1840 the Methodists, 
destined to become the strongest Protestant denomination in the 
State, opened Asbury University (now De Pauw) at Green- 
castle.i Bishop Simpson, one of the greatest pulpit orators 
of his day and a man of national influence, became the first 
President of this institution. Bishop Simpson exerted a wide 
religious and educational influence in Indiana. Other noted 
Methodist Bishops have served as Presidents of De Pauw — 
including Bishop Bowman, Bishop Hughes, and Bishop McConnell. 

In 1834 the Baptists established Franklin College. In 1842 
the Roman Catholics opened the college of Notre Dame, near 
South Bend. In 1847 the Society of Friends, or " Quakers," 
always devoted friends of philanthropy and reform, founded 
Earlham College at Richmond. Butler College at Irvington, 
now a suburb of Indianapolis, was founded by the Church of 
the Disciples, or Christians, in 1850, under the name of " North- 
western Christian University." These worthy church colleges 
have rendered great services to the State. Thousands of devoted 

' Asbury was chartered and its corner-stone was laid in 1837. 



5IO ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

men and women of Indiana made great sacrifices to establish 
them and their graduates have taken important places in leader- 
ship and usefulness, not only in Indiana, but in other parts of 
our country. 

The Common Schools. The log schoolhouses were poor 
and the teachers were poor, many of them ignorant and unfit 
to teach. The district school rarely lasted more than eight or 
ten weeks in the year. While there were some good academies 
and seminaries in the State, most of the County seminaries were 
in a wretched condition and were poorly attended. The schools 
were not free; most of them were subscription schools and the 
people felt too poor to send their children. It seemed that 
Indiana was becoming one of the most illiterate States in the 
Union, and the term " Hoosier " had become a reproach, as 
indicating a coarse and boorish people. 

But there were scattered through the State many devoted and 
intelligent teachers, like Edward Eggleston the " Hoosier School- 
master," and Miss Dumont, at Vevay, a teacher of Eggleston's. 
The Mays at Salem, the Owens at New Harmony, the Wylies 
at Bloomington, the Merrills, the Nicholsons, the Merediths, 
and Blakes, and Julians in other parts of the State, and many 
others were constantly urging the cause of better schools. The 
colleges were like centres of light in the darkness. Professor 
Read and Professor Morrison of the State University and Caleb 
Mills at Wabash College and President Simpson and Professor 
Larrabee at Asbury, were giving public addresses and arousing 
public sentiment. Professor Mills's famous " Letters from one 
of the People," advocating a free school system, attracted the 
attention of Governor Whitcomb and the Legislature. It was 
largely the desire to bring about a better common school system 
that a new constitutional convention was called in 1S50. 

A New Constitution, 1850-51. The State had outgrown its 
first constitution, and so delegates to a constitutional convention 
were elected at the regular State election in August, 1850. 
The convention met in October, 1850, and completed its labors 



HISTORY AXD GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 511 

in February, 185 1, the new constitution being adopted by 
the people in the election in August, 1851, Governor Joseph 
A. Wright was the first Governor under the new constitution. 

In this con\ention the cause of free schools was ably cared 
for. Professor Daniel Read of the Indiana University was a 
delegate, and he had been for years a warm friend and strong 
advocate of common schools. Mr. John I. Morrison, the Prin- 
cipal of a Girls' School at Salem and one of the ablest teachers 
of the State, was a delegate, and he was made chairman of the 
Committee on Education. Morrison reported the article of the 
new constitution relating to education. He w^as the author of 
the section creating the office of State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. The new constitution made it the solemn duty of 
the Legislature " to provide by law for a common school system 
of education wherein tuition shall be without charge and erjually 
open to all." This was followed by a sure and generous provision 
for a common school fund, in order that the terms might be 
longer and the teachers be better paid.i Under these provisions 
the great system of free public education in Indiana has grown up, 
and in the sixty years that have followed, the name of " Hoosier," 
far from being a reproach, has become a decoration of honor. 
The schools of Indiana have set the State upon a pedestal of 
distinction. 

Early Social Customs. There was much toil and drudgery 
and hardship in the life of the frontier settlers. But with all 
that, they had their meetings, their amusements, and their frolics. 
The religious camp meetings and revivals attracted the people 
for miles around. The people would leave their homes and tow^ns 
for a camp, or tabernacle, in the woods for ten days or tw'O weeks 
at a time, to give themselves up to religious devotion and excite- 
ment. These meetings were serious, but they afforded a rest 
from toil. The log-rollings and barn-raisings brought hard 

'In the early land grants to the State the Federal Government had stipulated 
that the i6th section in every congressional township should be reserved for 
schools. This was the early basis of the present school fund. 



512 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

work, but they were made the occasions of visiting and good 
times. The sugar camps, " husking bees," and spelling matches, 
the quilting parties, the rifle-matches, the pigeon shooting, the 
stump speeches, political rallies, and barbecues, the school ex- 
hibitions, and " shivarees," in all these ways, the people found 
hearty and healthful amusements. 

The County Muster. The early " muster " also afforded 
a gala time. This was the meeting at the county seat of the 
county militia. Once a year, usually just after harvest, the 
" muster " was held. All persons subject to military duty be- 
tween the years of i8 and 45 were required to attend to be drilled 
in the manual of arms. The militiamen were not uniformed, 
but came in varied clothing, carrying all kinds of weapons, long- 
barreled rifles, shotguns, carbines, and hunting-guns; and when 
some of the men had no guns at all, they were put through the 
drill carrying corn stalks. The muster often presented an awkward 
squad and the drilling company was- sometimes laughed at by 
the bystanders and was called " the corn-stalk militia." 

Political rallies were attended by thousands of people. To 
the great Whig rally at the Tippecanoe battle-ground in 1840 
people came from all parts of the Northwest. They came by 
land and water in every kind of conveyance — in wagons, in 
huge log cabins mounted on wheels, with gourds and coon-skins 
hanging on the sides, in long canoes painted and decorated with 
party emblems. It was estimated that 20,000 people were there. 
The woods were filled with wagons, flags, banners, and streamers, 
all like a military encampment. In the " barbecue " to feed 
the multitude there were roasts of whole carcasses, — shoats, 
sheep, and oxen, dressed and spitted over a long trench by the 
heat of well-tended fires. The carvers with their long, sharp 
knives served the meat. In the rear was a smaller trench where 
the " burgoo " was served, a soup rich and well seasoned, all 
without money and without price. There were always hot 
political disputes and some fist fights on such occasions, though 
usually the crowd was orderly and good-natured. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 513 

In these forty years the Hfe of the people was constantly 
becoming more settled and cultivated. The farms were improving, 
the towns were growing, railroads were extending, commerce was 
increasing, wealth was accumulating, homes were being made 
better, and Indiana was fast becoming one of the leading States 
of the Union. The State had borne its fair share in the Mexican 
war. It had almost always been Democratic in politics and 
had not been greatly moved by the Anti-slavery agitation. The 
abolitionists were disliked, and the people did not wish the free 
negro to come among them. But the great majority of Indiana 
people were opposed to the extension of slavery and in i860 the 
voters by a majority over all other candidates voted for Abraham 
Lincoln for President. The State was ready to play a valiant part 
in the great war for the preservation of the Union. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Indicate the wonderful growth of Indiana from 1820 to i860. How 
did the settlers come? How did they get land? Describe the Log Cabin 
pioneer conditions. 

2. Give an account of Lincoln's life in Indiana. 

3. Describe the early roads, canals and means of transportation. 

4. Tell about early education in the state. Early social customs. 

5. What Church colleges are in Indiana? When established? 

6. What influences promoted free common schools? What is the 
source of our common school fund? 

INDIANA IN THE CIVIL WAR 

When the Civil War came on the great majority of the people 
of Indiana were determined that the Union should be saved. 
They did not know, however, the best way by which to accom- 
plish their purpose. 

Oliver P. Morton, " The War Governor." In the midst of 
the confusion and the excitement a great leader appeared to 
point the way. This man was Oliver P. Morton, the "war 
Governor " of Indiana. Morton knew no such word as fail. 



514 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

When opposed by a legislature which refused appropriations, 
he borrowed money on his own responsibility, maintained the 
credit of the State and kept the Indiana soldiers in the field. 
Morton was the strong man of Indiana in the early sixties and 
later became one of the stalwart figures of the nation. No other 
leader in the Civil War gave President Lincoln and the national 
government a more valiant or effective support than did Morton 
of Indiana. 

Morton's Vigorous Actions. Governor Morton was a man of 
executive action. On the morning after the fall of Fort Sumter, 
April 15, 1861, and before Lincoln's call for volunteers had been 
received, Governor Morton sent the following telegram to President 
Lincoln at Washington. " On behalf of the State of Indiana, 
I tender you for the defense of the nation, and to uphold the 
authority of the government, ten thousand men." On the same 
day came Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers, and Governor 
Morton set about vigorously to redeem his promise. 

The Call to the Colors. Governor Morton at once issued a 
call for volunteers and the whole state was in a fever of excite- 
ment. Public meetings were held, speeches were made, recruiting 
stations were opened, and the stirring music of the fife and drum 
were to be heard on every hand. Party lines seemed to be for- 
gotten for the time and the people thought only of one thing — 
the saving of the Union. There were in Indiana many who 
were opposed to the coercing of the southern states, but in this 
wave of popular feeling they were compelled to keep silent, 

Indiana's quota of the 75,000 men which were called for 
was 4683, but more than 12,000 men enlisted in ten days and 
reported at Indianapolis for service. As a matter of fact Indiana 
offered more than the national government was ready to accept. 
They were quartered on the land which was later used as a state 
fair grounds, and " Camp Morton " became a very busy scene. 

In the course of the Civil War, Indiana troops, 250,000 in 
number, fought in every State touched by the conflict — seven- 
teen States and Territories — and took part in more than three 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 515 

hundred battles. Indiana regiments were everywhere where 
fighting was going on — at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Stone River, Chicka- 
mauga, Mission Ridge, and Atlanta. 

Morton, " The Soldier's Friend." In addition to sending the 
men into the field, Governor Morton saw to it that they were 
well cared for. Because of his tireless efforts in this respect he 
soon became widely known as " The Soldier's Friend." His 
heart was in his work. He called a special session of the Legis- 
lature, which assembled ten days after the fall of Fort Sumter, 
and delivered a ringing message to that body on the opening 
day, " Without distinction of party, condition, or occupation," 
he said, " men have rallied around the nation's standard, and in 
every part of the State may be heard the sound of martial music 
and witnessed the mustering of companies into the field." 

His call for money met with a ready response. The Legis- 
lature voted two million dollars to equip and arm the men, and 
the Governor worked without ceasing to fit them for service. 
He also worked literally night and day to see that the Indiana 
men in the field had the comforts as well as the necessities of 
life. Working through the Sanitary Commission, he sent them 
warm cothing and hospital supplies, as well as provisions and 
delicacies. He also sent nurses and surgeons to the front to 
care for the Indiana men and forwarded 30,000 overcoats when 
the Government did not act promptly enough to suit him. 
To Governor Morton's mind there was nothing too good for the 
soldier boy in the field. 

Morgan's Raid: "The Battle of Corydon." The greatest 
war excitement in Indiana occurred in July, 1863. General 
John Morgan, the famous " rebel raider," crossed the Ohio 
River near Manckport and marched north with about 4000 troops. 
Some of the Harrison county militia or " Home Guards," resisted 
his advance and there was a little skirmish about a mile from 
Corydon in which a few men were killed and wounded. ^Morgan 
marched into Corydon, then north to Salem and turned east 
toward Vernon. The whole State was aroused and thousands 



5i6 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

of the militia were ready to turn out and fight Morgan's men, 
but he hurried out of the State so fast that he could not be caught. 
His force was captured or dispersed in Ohio. Morgan plundered 
some stores, burnt some bridges, and took several hundred horses, 
but he did not find the sympathy with the Confederacy which he 
had been led to expect. The people of Indiana were true to the 
Union and Morgan's raid made them more loyal than ever. 

Indiana Officers. The State of Indiana furnished its share 
of officers as well as enlisted men. General Ambros E. Burnside, 
who succeeded McClellan as commander of the Army of the 
Potomac, was born in Union County. General Lew Wallace, 
of Shiloh fame, and the celebrated author of " Ben Hur," was 
for many years a resident of Crawfordsville. His statue now 
stands by the side of that of Oliver P. Morton in Statuary Hall 
in the National Capitol. Congress has voted that each State 
may erect the statues of two of its leading citizens, but not more, 
in Statuary Hall. The patriotism and the genius of Indiana 
are well represented in Morton and Wallace. Brigadier-General 
Benjamin Harrison reflected great credit upon his State in the 
field, the Senate, and later in the Presidential office. Major- 
General Alvin P. Hovey fought the battles of the Union and later 
served as Governor of Indiana from 1889 to 1891. Major-General 
Walter Q. Gresham, after an honorable career on the field, be- 
came famous as a lawyer and was a Cabinet member under 
Presidents Arthur and Cleveland. Brigadier-General P. A. 
Hackleman, a brilliant soldier and efticient officer, killed October 
2, 1862, was enlisted from Rush County. Major-General Robert 
H. Milroy, " the Gray Eagle of the Army," fought gallantly in 
West Virginia, and Major-General Joseph J. Reynolds was 
with Thomas when the latter stood " like a rock " at Chicka- 
mauga. 

Indiana in National I'olitics. Following the war, and on 
account of her record, Indiana became prominent in national 
politics. It was a close State politically and was the scene of 
hard fought battles between Republicans and Democrats. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 



517 



Schuyler Colfax, of South Bend (Republican), was Speaker of 
the National House of Representatives for several terms during and 
following the war, Michael 
C. Kerr, of New Albany (Dem 
ocrat), was another speaker 
(i874-7'5). Colfax was elected 
\'ice President with Grant in 
1868. Thomas A. Hendricks 
(Democrat), was elected Gov- 
ernor in 1872, and Vice 
President with Cleveland in 
1884. Charles W. Fairbanks 
(Republican), was made \'ice 
President with Roosevelt in 
1904 and Thomas R. Marshall 
(Democrat), after serving as 
Governor, became Vice Pre- 
sident with President Wilson 
in 1913. Benjamin Harrison, 
of Indiana, was elected Presi- 
dent in 1888 and many old 
men w^ho had voted for his 
grandfather in 1840, in the 
famous campaign of " Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler Too " rallied 
to his support. 

The State's Gratitude. 
Governor Morton extended 
his fatherly care over the 
Indiana soldiers while in the 
field, and the State of Indana 
has since the war tenderly 
cared for the veterans and their families. A splendid institution, 
known as the State Soldiers' Home, has been established a 
few miles from Lafayette and in this more than tooo people — 




Soldiers' axu Sailors' Monument at 
Indl\napolis 

The state of Indiana built this monu- 
ment in memory of the Indiana men who 
fought in the army and navy in the wars 
of the nation, from the Revolutionary 
and Indian wars to the War for the 
Union. The monument was built in ten 
years, beinj; completed in 1897. Its en- 
tire height is 284 feet and 6 inches above 
the level of the street, and the shaft is 
surmounted by a bronze statue of "Vic- 
ton,'," which is 38 feet high. Its foun- 
dation covers 3657 square feet, and is 30 
feet deep. Two stone groups of statuary 
represent " Peace " and " War," and 
the bronze ornaments on the shaft 
symbolize the Army and the Navy. 
The inscription on the monument is: 
" To Indiana's Silent Victors." 



5i8 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

veterans and their wives — find solace and comfort in their 
declining years. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' • Home, 
at Knightstown, was established to shelter the children of the 
men who exposed their lives on the firing line. 

Now that the war is over the bitterness of the old days has 
passed away. This fact is beautifully expressed in the inscrip- 
tion upon the stone which Indiana contributed to the monument 
erected at Washington, D. C, in honor of George Washington. 
This inscription reads as follows: " Indiana knows no North, 
' no South, Nothing but the Union." 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Tell about Indiana's part in the Civil War. 

2. Describe Gov. Morton's services as a " War Governor." 

3. Describe John Morgan's Raid in Indiana. 

4. Describe some of the distinguished men from Indiana in national 
politics. 

INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 

The State of Indiana has enjoyed its full share of that re- 
markable industrial and social progress which the United States 
has experienced since the Civil War. 

The Effect of the Civil War. The Civil War had a marked 
effect upon the development of agriculture in the United States. 
It caused a great demand for agricultural products, and prices 
consequently rose. This stimulated production and brought 
about the use of labor-saving machinery on a large scale. Evi- 
dence of this fact may be seen in the production of wheat in 
Indiana. In 1859, the State produced fifteen million bushels. 
In 1863, with a large part of its men in the army, the production 
was twenty million bushels. It is estimated that at the close 
of the war there were 250,000 reapers in use in the United States, 
each one of which could cut ten acres of grain in a day. These 
reapers helped the North to win the Civil War, as they provided 
bread for the people while the men fought the battles. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 519 





Schuyler Colfux 



Thomas A. Hendricks 





Charles \V. Fairbanks Thomas R. ]\Iarshall 

Indiana's Four Vice Presidents 



520 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 



General Progress. The population of Indiana, accordin to 
the census of 1910, was 2,700,876. The population of the State 
increased 7.3% between 1900 and 19 10. The increase in the 
cities was marked, while in some of the rural districts of the 
State the population decreased. As in other States, there has 
been in Indiana a marked tendency for the population to drift, 
to the cities. 42 i% of the people of Indiana now live in cities of 
2500 or more as against 34% in 1900. 

The area of the State is 36,354 square miles. More than 
92% of the land area is made up of farms. The value of farm 
property increased about 85% between 1900 and 1910. The total 
value of farm property in Indiana in 1910 was $1,809,135,000, 
and the total value of farm crops in the same year was $204,210,000. 

Manufactures. In point of area Indiana is the thirty-seventh 
State in the Union. From the standpoint of manufacturing 
Indiana ranks ninth. According to the United States census of 
1910, the total value of the manufactured products in Indiana 
for a single year amounted to $579,075,000. Great towns like 
Gary have grown up on the Lake. The Oliver plows and the 
Studebaker wagons are known throughout the world. 

Mining. Mining is also an important industry in Indiana. 
The mines, quarries, and oil wells of the state produced in 1909 
a gross value of $21,934,201. The value of the output in the coal 
fields was $15,000,000. The limestone quarries produced three 
and a half million dollars and the oil and gas wells more than 
three million dollars. The coal of Indiana is used wherever 
manufacturing is done, and the Bedford building stone has been 
used in all important cities of the United States. 

Transportation Railroads and Canals. The development of 
transportation facilities must of necessity go hand in hand with 
the development of agriculture and manufactures. Transporta- 
tion facilities in Indiana in the early days were not good. The 
rivers and rude roads cut through the forests were the highways 
over which the pioneer had to travel. The development from 
these humble beginnings has been remarkable. The State now 



nrsTORV a:vd c(wernment of Indiana 521 

has about 7,500 miles of railroad connecting it with all parts 
of the United States. In addition to this there are now more 
than 2000 miles of electric lines in the State, In fact, Indiana 
is the center of the interurban business of the United States. 
These electric lines are having an important effect upon the 
economic and social development of the State. They have 
increased the amount of travel and are helping to break the 
monotony of rural life. In fact, the monotony of rural life is 
now in most parts of the State a thing of the past. The trolley 
car makes it possible for boys and girls from the farm to attend 
the city high school and it has also brought the lectures and 
concerts of the county seat within easy reach of people many 
miles away. Farm horses also have been relieved of many of 
their burdens. Instead of driving his team to town in stormy 
weather and over bad roads, the farmer now takes the trolley 
car, which runs past his door. He also sends a part of his produce 
to town in the same way. 

Charities and Corrections. The State of Indiana has been 
far-sighted and liberal in its charitable and correctional work. 
A long time ago, when it was not fashionable or customary to 
say such things, the Indiana State constitution said that the 
punishment of offenders against the law should be based upon 
the idea of " reformation " and not upon that of " vindictive 
justice." With this humane and sensible view constantly in 
mind, the State has passed wise laws for the care of its dependent 
and criminal cases. There are now five well-managed hospitals 
for the insane — at Indianapolis, Richmond, Logansport, Evans- 
ville and Madison. At these places patients receive expert 
treatment and a large percentage of them are cured or very greatly 
improved. Provision has also been made for the education of 
the dumb, deaf, and blind. The reformatory at Jeffersonville, 
receives the younger offenders and the State prison at Michigan 
City exists for those who are more hardened in criminal ways. 
The Indiana Boys' School at Plainficld trains and educates 
wayward youth and attempts to make them good citizens. In 



522 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 



addition to those mentioned there are several other State institu- 
tions, ail under the general supervision of the Board of State 
Charities. This Board issues an annual report which contains 
a vast amount of information, useful to Indiana citizens. The 
State Board of Health under the leadership of Dr. J. N. Hurty 
has done much to safeguard the life and health of the people. 

Literary Progress. Indiana's position in the literary world 
has been a matter of favorable comment for many years. Men- 
tion can be made of some of these. General Lew Wallace's 




Lew Wallace James Whitcomb Riley Edward Eggleston 

Three Famous Indiana Authors 

" Ben Hur " has been read in all quarters of the globe and in 
almost every important language. Edward Eggleston is famous 
for his " Hoosier Schoolmaster," and " Hoosier School Boy," 
as well as for his excellent historical writings. His brother, 
George Gary Eggleston, wrote " The First of the Hoosiers," 
and about thirty other books, and was also a successful editor. 
Joaquin Miller, " The Poet of the Sierras," was an Indiana man 
and so was David Graham Phillips, author of " The Deluge." 
Thousands of people have read with delight Maurice Thompson's 
" Alice of Old Vincennes." Charles Major's " When Knight- 
hood was in Flower " has been read by tens of thousands of people 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 523 

and so have the fascinating > stories of Booth Tarkington and 
George Barr McCutcheon. Annie Fellows Johnston and Evaleen 
Stein have delighted the children of this generation with their 
charming stories, and the novels of Meredith Nicholson are read 
wherever good fiction is in demand. George Ade, humorist and 
playwright, and John McCutcheon, cartoonist and author, are 
men of international reputation, and deservedly so, in their re- 
spective lines of work. Other Indiana writers of note are James 
Baldwin, William Dudley Foulkc, Jacob P. Dunn, Daniel Wait 
Howe, Charles R. Williams, William Vaughn Moody, Charles 
W. Moores, and Gene Stratton Porter. And now last, but by no 
means least, mention should be made of James Whitcomb Riley, 
Indiana's foremost man of. letters, whose poems are familiar to 
every school boy and girl in the State. On October 7, 1915, 
hundreds of men from all parts of the United States assembled 
at Indianapolis to celebrate the birthday anniversary of Indiana's 
much beloved poet. 

Progress in Education. In no field of human life has the 
progress of Indiana been more marked during the last half century 
than in the field of education. From an illiterate condition 
Indiana has risen to be one of the foremost States of the Union. 
The common schools in the country districts have been greatly- 
improved and their teachers are better educated. Every city and 
town of any size has a system of graded schools and a well-equipped 
high school which can prepare their pupils for college or give 
them practical manual training for some trade or vocation which 
will help them to succeed in life. Township high schools are 
established in the country, so that a high school is within reach 
of almost every child in the state. Most of the high school teachers 
are now college graduates and most of the country teachers are 
high school graduates. Above the high schools are the colleges 
and universities — Indiana University at Bloomington, with its 
College of Liberal Arts and its professional schools of Education, 
Law, and Medicine; Purdue University with its schools of Agri- 
culture and Engineering; the State Normal School for the special 



524 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

training of teachers.^ The church colleges have constantly 
gi'own stronger and between them and the state schools there 
is a spirit of cooperation and harmony. Private normal schools, 
like the famous one at Valparaiso, has sent out hundreds of 
trained citizens for service in the state. 

All these educational forces of the state are well organized 
and directed. At the head of the system stands the State Board 
of Education, of thirteen members. Six of these are appointed 
by the Governor, and among these are representatives of the 
church colleges, of the common schools, and of the labor and 
industrial life of the state. The seven other members consist 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is the President 
of the Board and who is elected by the voters of the State; the 
President of the three State higher educational institutions; and 
the Superintendents of schools in the three largest cities of the 
State, now Indianapolis, Evansville, and Fort Wayne. This Board 
affords educational leadership under whose direction, together with 
the State Teachers' Associations, all the educational forces of the 
State may be marshaled for improvement and progress. Every 
child of school age is required to go to school, and in 1913 the State 
legislature provided by law for Vocational Education that the 
children of Indiana, most of whom cannot go to college, may 
have not only such common school and high school education 
as will fit them for good citizenship, but also may receive such 
special training in trades and vocations as will better fit them for 
earning their living. 

Indiana is now (19 16) celebrating the centennial of her birth 
as a State. Her children may have a feeling of pride in being 
known as " Hoosiers." They may rejoice in the noble record of 
the brave pioneer fathers and mothers who helped to build the 
State. They may be well be proud of the State's prosperity and 
achievements. The State deserves honor for what it has done 
in literature, for the relief of the unfortunate, and for its work 

' Purdue and the State Normal School were founded following an act of the 
State legislature of 1865. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 525 

in the betterment of human society. But there is special reason 
for honor and pride in the record of the State in education and 
because of the advanced position that Indiana has attained among 
the States of the Union in this respect. 



GOVERNMENT 

THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

The State Constitution. Indiana, like all the States, has a 
written constitution. This constitution is the law that describes 
the form of government for the State and the principles on which 
the people wish the government conducted. The constitution is 
made, or adopted, by the people themselves. It is the supreme 
law of the State — higher than the statute law which the Legis- 
lature makes, and it cannot be changed except by a vote of the 
people. It contains a Bill of Rights, reasserting the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence, affirming that " the people 
have at all times an indefeasible right to alter and reform their 
government"; securing the right of the people to freedom of 
worship, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech; to "justice 
freely without purchase, and speedily without delay," and, when 
accused of crime, to fair trials in open court. The Legislature 
and the courts may not legally abridge or deny these rights of 
the people. 

Form of Govermnent. The Constitution of the State, like 
that of the United States, divides its government into three 
branches: i. Legislative; 2. Executive; 3. Judicial. 

The Legislature is the law-making body. Like that of all 
the States, it consists of two houses, the upper house, or the 
Senate, and the lower house, or the House of Representatives. 
Both houses together are called the Legislature, or the General 
Assembly. Every act or bill must pass both houses and be 
approved by the Governor, or be passed over his veto, before it 
can become a law. Two thirds of each house constitutes a 



526 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

quorum to do business, but a majority of all the members elected 
to each house is required in a vote for a measure before it can 
become a law. Thus there are " checks and balances " as a 
precaution against unwise legislation. 

Membership and Officers of the Legislature. The Senate 
consists of fifty members, the House of one hundred, and this 
membership cannot be increased under the present constitution. 
Senators and Representatives are elected from the counties and 
senatorial districts by the qualified voters, the Representatives 
for two years, the Senators for four. Half of the Senators go out 
of ofiice every two years. The other half are " hold-overs," 
and they assure to each session of the Legislature some experi- 
enced members. The Senators are required to be at least twenty- 
five years of age, the Representatives twenty-one. The Legis- 
lature meets once in two years for a session of sixty-one days, 
beginning on the Thursday following the first Monday in January. 
Special sessions may be called by the Governor. 

The Lieutenant-Governor becomes Governor in case of a 
vacancy. He presides over the Senate, while the House elects 
a Speaker as its presiding officer. Both houses have clerks, 
doorkeepers, etc., and each house keeps a Journal of its pro- 
ceedings, so that anyone may know what goes on in the open 
sessions. What happens in the committees and caucuses is not 
so easily found out. 

Public Opinion. The legislators are elected to represent the 
people and to look out for the people's interests. If the people 
wish to get good laws and to have the State well governed, they 
must let their representatives know what they want done. Public 
opinion is all-powerful, and legislators and politicians will be 
controlled by it when it makes itself known. The people speak 
through newspapers, public meetings, petitions, and personal 
letters. The law-makers are anxious to meet with the approval 
of the people, and they will follow public opinion when it is ex- 
pressed in unmistakable terms. Electing legislators is not enough; 
they must be informed as to what the people think on public 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 527 

questions, and, most important of all, the people should see to it 
that the right kind of men are sent to the Legislature. Good 
laws will not come from bad men any more than grapes will 
come from thorns or figs from thistles. 

The Executive Department: the Governor. The chief 
executive officer of the State is the Governor. It is his duty, 
where he has the power, to see that the laws of the State are 
faithfully executed. He is elected by the people for a term of 
four years, but he may not be elected again until he has been 
out of the office for at least four years. The Governor must 
not be less than thirty years of age, and he must have been for 
five years a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the 
State for five years preceding his election. 

The Governor's Powers. By his message to the Legislature 
the Governor may enlighten public opinion and influence legis- 
lation. The Governor may veto bills, that is, proposed laws, 
but any of them may be passed over his veto by a bare majority 
of the members elected to each house. He has the power to 
pardon criminals, though he generally acts upon the advice of a 
Board of Pardons appointed to investigate such cases. He has 
the power of appointment to many boards and commissions, 
like the boards of trustees for certain State institutions, the Public 
Utilities Commission, the Tax Commission, and other bodies. 
He is generally a leader with large influence in his party and in 
the State, and in many ways, especially in times of war, disorder, 
or public peril, he is the most important personage in the State. 

The Governor is the Commander-in-chief of the military 
forces of the State, and he may call out such forces to enforce 
the laws, to suppress insurrection, or to repel invasion. 

Other State Oflicers. There arc other important executive 
or administrative officers of the State. 

The Secretary of State keeps the official records, transcribes 
the laws of the State, and attaches the State seal to important 
documents. He sees that the laws are correctly printed and 
preserved. 



528 



ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 



The Auditor of State is the bookkeeper. He keeps an 
account of all money received and paid out, and none can be 
paid out without his order. He has supervision of State banks 
and all insurance companies doing business in the State. His 
office is vitally important, as he may protect the people against 

fraud by requiring proper 
public reports from companies 
and corporations, and by 
seeing that they do not evade 
the law and impose upon the 
people. 

The Treasurer of State has 
charge of the State funds. 
He may not receive or pay 
out money except on the war- 
rant of the Auditor. He must 
pledge himself by a bond that 
he will honestly handle the 
Great Seal of the State of Indiana funds and faithfully perform 

the duties of his office. 
The Attorney-General is the lawyer for the State. He rep- 
resents the State in the Supreme Court and other courts, prose- 
cutes offenders against the State as well as claims and cases for 
the State. He gives legal advice to the Governor and other 
State officers. 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction oversees the educa- 
tional interests of the State. He collects information concerning 
the schools, helps to direct and lead in teachers' conventions 
and institutes, and represents the educational interests of the 
State before the people and General Assembly. He is President 
of the State Board of Education, and being at the head of the 
school forces of the State, he performs duties touching the most 
important interests of the people. 

The State Geologist studies and reports upon the minerals 
of the State, its mines, rocks, soils, and other natural resources. 




HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 529 

The State Statistician collects and publishes statistics relating 
to the general activities of the State, its agriculture, commerce, 
manufacturing, and other lines. 

The Judicial Department. This consists of the various State 
and local courts, whose duty it is to administer justice between 
man and man, and to impose penalties for violation of the law. 
It is the place of the judges, or the courts, to explain the meaning 
of the laws and to apply them to cases that arise. Justices of 
the Peace do this for the local communities, trying petty offenses 
against the law, like quarreling or disturbing the peace, and 
settling small disputes over property, such as the ownership of 
a pig, or the location of a line fence. Police Courts in the cities 
try offenders against good order, the gamblers, the crap-shooters, 
the drunkards, the saloon-keepers who violate the liquor laws, 
and others who transgress the State laws and the city ordinances. 

The District Courts, or Circuit Courts, are next in order. 
These names are explained by the fact that the State is divided 
into judicial districts for the trial of cases, and in earlier times 
a district consisted of several counties, and the judge went upon 
his circuit holding court first in one county, then in another. It 
is before these courts that the majority of cases are tried, for 
murder, burglary, divorce, and important disputes over property. 

Appeals may be taken in all important cases from the lower 
courts to the higher, from the Justices of the Peace to the Cir- 
cuit Courts, and from the Circuit Courts to the Supreme Court. 
Cases of a certain grade cannot go farther than the Appellate 
Court, which is a court midway between the Circuit Court and 
the Supreme Court. The Appellate Court was created by the 
Legislature of 1891 to relieve the Supreme Court of certain cases 
brought up on appeal. Final decision is made by the Appellate 
Court in certain cases not involving large sums of money. Crim- 
inal cases in which a man's right to life and liberty is involved 
may always be carried to the Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court consists of five judges, elected by the 
people for a term of six years. The justices are of equal rank, 



530 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

but one of their number, usually the oldest, is elected to preside 
and is called the Chief Justice. Most of the work of this court 
is appellate, that is, it consists of reviewing cases that are appealed 
from the lower courts. If one side in a case is dissatisfied with 
the decision in a Circuit Court it may, under certain conditions, 
appeal the case to the Supreme Court, and this Court gives the 
final decision in the case. The decisions of the Supreme Court 
in interpreting the law serve as precedents which help to make 
up the law of the State. No one knows precisely what the law 
is until the Supreme Court gives a decision touching the points 
in question. The decision of the Court is accepted as the law, 
until this decision is reversed by another decision of the Court. 
A lower court may declare an act of the Legislature unconsti- 
tutional and therefore null and void, and if that opinion is affirmed 
by the Supreme Court on appeal, the act is no longer binding. 

Amending the Constitution. The way to amend the Con- 
stitution of Indiana is laid down in the Constitution itself. If 
one Legislature approves an amendment, it is passed and referred 
to the next Legislature, two years later. If that body approves, 
it is its duty to submit the amendment to the people of the State. 
If a majority of the voters of the State approve it at the polls 
it will then be declared a part of the Constitution. It is so difficult 
to get an amendment passed that a strong demand has arisen 
for a new constitution. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. How many members are there in each house of the Legislature? 
How often does the Legislature meet? What is the length of the session? 
Why is it better to have two houses in a legislature? 

2. Who is Governor of Indiana? What is the length of his term? 
What are the principal powers of the Governor? Name the other State 
officers; tell how they are chosen, the length of their terms, and their 
principal duties. 

3. What is guaranteed in the " Bill of Rights" ? What is an appellate 
court? How many members are on the Indiana Supreme Court? How 
are they chosen? 

4. How is a new Constitution made? How is the Constitution amended? 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 531 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT 

Local Self-Govemment. The right of every community to 
govern itself within its own local limits has always been in- 
sisted upon by the American people. So the State makes laws 
under which the counties, cities, and townships .govern them- 
selves. The amount of local government enjoyed depends on the 
Legislature. Complaint is made that the cities are " in bondage 
to the legislature " and a strong sentiment exists for " home 
rule for cities," under which each city might adopt a charter 
for itself to control its own affairs entirely and raise its own taxes 
in its own way for local purposes. 

The county is the legislative unit, since the counties elect 
members of the Legislature, and the county, city, and the town- 
ship are the units for local government. Whether the people 
are badly governed; whether their taxes are too high, or whether 
their money is stolen by dishonest officials, whether the laws are 
enforced, or crime and disorder prevail, and life and property 
are unsafe — all these things depend very largely, not on the 
President or the Governor or a legislature far away, but upon 
the kind of local government the people set up for themselves 
in their own communities. What kind of citizens arc there in 
the city and the township ? On this will depend good government 
for the people, and finally, the kind of laws and government 
the State will have. So local government and local citizenship 
are extremely important. The State and the Nation depend 
upon the citizens at home. The citizens should therefore care 
diligently for their city, their township, and their county. 

County Commissioners and Township Trustees. In the 
country districts the people are especially interested in the work 
of the County Commissioners and the Township Trustees. 

The Township Trustee is the important officer of the township. 
He examines and settles accounts against the township. He may 
levy taxes and incur debts. He has charge of the finances of 
thfe township, its roads, its schools, its elections, and its relief 
for the poor. In all these important matters he is the responsible 



532 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

business manager of the township. He appoints and pays the 
teachers, authorizes the building of schoolhouses, buys school 
supplies, and in the most important ways the people's interests 
are in his hands. It has been said that, so far as the personal 
interest of the, people in the township is concerned, it is more 
important for them to see that they have a good Township 
Trustee than to see that they have a good President of the United 
States. The Township Trustee can afifect their property interest 
and their immediate welfare far more than can the President. 

County Commissioners. So far as the county makes laws, 
the Board of Commissioners is the county legislature. They 
manage the business of the county and are its most important 
administrative officers. Each county is divided into three dis- 
tricts, and there is a Commissioner for each district, though 
all three are elected by the whole county. The Commissioners 
authorize the construction of new roads, the erection of public 
buildings, and control the county property. They make con- 
tracts for the county and hear claims against it. They fix the 
county tax levy and make appropriations of money. They hear 
applications for liquor licenses, appoint health officers and food- 
inspectors and certain election officers. Their powers are so 
extensive and important that it may be said they govern the 
county, under the law of the State. 

Other County Officers. The Sherifif is the chief executive 
officer of the county. It is his business to carry out the orders 
of the court, to preserve the peace, to arrest offenders, to summon 
jurymen, to have charge of the jail, and to keep the prisoners. 
He has authority to call to his aid (if necessary to enforce the 
law and to keep the peace) what is called the posse comitatiis, 
that is, the power of the county, or the citizens of the community, 
the bystanders, whose duty it is to aid the Sheriff in making 
arrests or suppressing disorder. If this power is not sufficient, 
the Sheriff may call upon the Governor to furnish State troops. 
The Sheriff is elected for a term of two years and may serv^e 
but two terms in succession. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 533 

The County Auditor examines and settles accounts. lie 
issues orders on the County Treasurer and acts as Secretary to 
the Board of Commissioners. He makes out a list, from the 
reports of the assessors, of all the taxable property of the county, 
and puts down the amount of tax which is charged to each per- 
son. In brief, the Auditor keeps the accounts of the county. 
He is elected for a term of four years, and he may serve only 
eight years in succession. 

The County Treasurer collects the taxes and safeguards the 
money. He gives a receipt for all moneys paid in, and pays out 
money on the order of the Auditor. His term is two years, and 
he may serve only four years in succession. 

The County Recorder registers the deeds, leases, mortgages, 
liens, assignments, and contracts that need to be made a matter 
of public record. He is elected for four years and may serve 
but eight years in succession. 

The Coroner is elected for two years and may serve any 
number of terms. He becomes Sheriff in case of a vacancy. 
His chief duty is to hold an inquest or examination on the body 
of any one who may have come to his death by violence or acci- 
dent, and he reports the circumstances of the case. 

The County Surveyor is elected by the people, every two years, 
to provide for accurate surveys of land, and to have expert con- 
struction of roads and drains. Under his direction the maps, 
charts, and plans of the county and the townships are made 
and kept. 

The County Superintendent is elected for a term of four 
years by the Township Trustees. He may be reelected for any 
number of terms. He supervises the schools of the county, 
except those in the cities, examines and licenses teachers, and 
he may revoke a license for good cause. He is required to \isit 
the schools, arrange for teachers' institutes, and report school 
statistics to the State Superintendent, showing the number of 
children of school age and the state of the school fund in his 
county. He attends chiefly to the country schools. 



534 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

EXERCISE ON COUNTY GOVERNMENT 

How many counties are there in Indiana? How many townships in 
your county? What is the area of your county? Its population? Draw 
a map of the county, locating its villages and cities. What Board consti- 
tutes the legislature of the county? What officer is the chief executive 
officer? The chief judicial officer? How are the County Commissioners 
elected? What are their duties? Let the pupil ascertain the principal 
duties of the following county officers: Sheriff, Clerk, Auditor, Treasurer, 
Recorder, Surveyor, Coroner, School Superintendent. 

CITY GOVERNMENT 

Problems of the City. The government of our cities presents 
special difficulties. The rapid growth of cities has been one of 
the notable facts in our history. In 1790, at the first census, 
America had only six cities whose population was as much as 
8,000 each. By the census of 1910 there were over 300 such 
cities. These cities contain nearly one half of the population 
of the United States. There are thirty-four such cities in Indiana. 
Many of the people in these cities are foreign-born, of many 
nationalities, crowded together in tenement houses, sometimes 
many thousands living within a few blocks. Under what con- 
ditions shall the people live and work? How can they be trans- 
ported from their houses to their working places? How can 
schools, playgrounds, and parks be provided for them? How 
can their food and milk be kept from adulteration? How can 
they be protected from crime, and the poor and ignorant be 
saved from imposition ? How can their homes be protected from 
fire, and their lives from contagious diseases ? All these problems, 
and more, the city has to wrestle with. 

Form and Scope of City Government. As in state and nation, 
so in the city there are three branches of government: legislative, 
executive, and judicial. The City Council is the city legislature. 
In order to see how complex and miscellaneous is the business 
of making laws for a city, and to realize how the interest and 
the freedom of the individual citizen must be subordinated to 
the welfare of the community where so many people are li\ing 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 535 

together, let us notice a number of the things which a city in 
Indiana is authorized to do : 

The Council, together with the Mayor, has power to pass 
laws to govern the city; to assess taxes and regulate the city's 
finances; to order street improvements and to control the streets 
and alleys; to lix the salaries of the city officers; to protect 
the city property; to provide punishments for disorder; to pro- 
vide for keeping the city clean and protecting its water supply 
from impurities; to regulate the location of bone factories, soap 
factories, and other factories that may be objectionable to a 
neighborhood; to declare what shall constitute a nuisance, and 
to prevent tilthy and unhealthy conditions about any one's prem- 
ises; to prevent the use of firearms and fireworks that might be 
dangerous to persons or property; to prevent the storage of 
gunpowder or inflammable oils that may be dangerous; to manage 
cemeteries; to quarantine person? and houses in order to pre- 
vent the spread of contagious diseases, to rer[uire records of births 
and deaths; to regulate or prohibit the ringing of bells, crying 
of goods, or sounding of steam-whistles; to regulate city mar- 
kets, and to prevent the sale of unwholesome meats and vege- 
tables; to define the fire limits and prevent the erection of frame 
buildings, or the deposit of hay, straw, lumber, or other com- 
bustible material within such limits; to regulate the erection of 
high chimneys and smokestacks; to require the inspection of 
gas-pipes, sewer-pipes, drainage, and electric wires; to recjuire 
property owners to remove weeds and rank vegetation; to prevent 
reckless driving or riding in the streets; to license or suppress 
hawkers and peddlers; to regulate and tax hackmen, cabmen, 
billposters, etc., etc. 

There are many other things for the Council to attend to. 
The whole work is divided into Departments, of Finance, Law, 
Public Works, Public Safety, Assessments, Public Health, and 
Charities, and boards are provided for to attend to these various 
activities, under appointment by Mayor or Council. 

The Council is required to meet once a month, and the Mayor 



536 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

may call special meetings. No city ordinance or law comes into 
force until signed by the Mayor, or is passed over his veto. It 
requires a two-thirds vote of all the councilmen to pass an ordi- 
nance over the Mayor's veto. It is the duty of the Mayor in the 
smaller cities to preside at all meetings of the Council, and he 
has a casting vote in case of a tie. 

CLASSES OF CITIES 

The cities of Indiana are divided into Jive classes: 

ist. Those having a population of 100,000 or over. Indian- 
apolis is the only one of this class. 

2d. Cities with a population between 45,000 and ico,cco. 
Evansville, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, and South Bend are in 
this class. 

3d. Cities with a population between 20,000 and 45,000. Muncie, 
Anderson, Richmond, Hammond, and Lafayette are in this class. 

4th. Cities with a population between 10,000 and 20,000. 

5th. Cities with a population less than 10,000. 

City Officers. The city officers are a mayor, a judge, a clerk, 
a treasurer, and councilmen, except that in every city of the 
first three classes, if it is a county seat, the county treasurer per- 
forms the duties of the city treasurer, and in cities of the fifth 
class, the duties of the city judge are performed by the mayor. 
A councilman is elected for each ward, and for the city at large 
half as many more councilmen are elected as there are wards; 
but the councilmen at large may not be fewer than two, nor 
more than six in number. These officers are elected for four 
years in November of the years following the Presidential elec- 
tion. The City Clerk records the acts and laws of the Council. 
The pay of the Councilmen varies from $50 to $200 per year, 
according to the size of the city. 

A City Attorney is elected to attend to the legal business of 
the city. 

A School Board of three members is elected by the Council 
(in the smaller cities), ^ and these School Trustees elect the 
teachers and the Superintendent of the city schools. 

' In some of the larger cities school trustees are elected by the people. 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 537 

In cities of the fifth class the City Marshal, appointed by 
the Mayor, has charge of the poHce force, and a Chief of the 
Fire Force, appointed by the Mayor, has charge of the Fire 
Department. A Street Commissioner is also appointed by the 
Mayor to care for the streets and crossings. 

The Mayor is the chief executive officer of the city. It is 
his duty to enforce the laws; to report yearly a statement of the 
city finances and the general condition of the city; to aj)point 
the heads of the various departments; and to be responsible,, 
in general, for the good order and government of the city. 

The " commission plan " of city government and the " city 
manager plan " which are now much discussed cannot be tried 
in Indiana under the present constitution as the laws governing 
the cities are made by the Legislature and they must be uniform 
throughout the State. 

Civic Pride. The people of a city should love their city> 
have true pride in it, be ready to serve it, promote its interest, 
and seek in every way to make it a better place in which to live. 
This does not mean to boast of it, nor to claim merits and attrac- 
tions for it that it does not possess. But it means that the people 
should think so much of their city that they will be willing to 
seek its welfare above their own private and selfish interests; 
that they will aid in its government and improvement, help to 
enforce its laws, keep the streets and sidewalks clean, render 
the homes and lives of the people secure, and do all they can to 
make their home town an orderly, healthy, and beautiful city. 

EXERCISES 

1. How may the following abuses be prevented: (i) Burdening the 
city with debt. (2) Encumbering the streets, the common property of all. 
(3) Erecting unsanitary buildings. (4) Laying leaky water mains. (5) 
Polluting the water supply with sewage. (6) Laying inferior pavements. 

2. Why is it the duty of the civic authorities to preserve in cities cheap 
water and light, good plumbing and ventilation, good transportation 
facilities, and to inspect tenement houses? 

3. Is it the business of the city to improve housing conditions? Is it 



538 ELEMENTARY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

the duty of the State or city to guarantee decent homes in which children 
may be safely brought up? Why? 

4. What can be done for self-government and social cooperation in the 
schools? Organize the school into a city, on a plan of city government, 
with a mayor, council, city courts, police force, health officer, and other 
necessary officers. Would it be safe for the teacher to permit the school 
to govern itself? Would it be easier for the teacher to govern it? 

5. How can civic pride be cultivated in the schools? What can the 
children do for the city? Are the children of the school willing to take the 
following " Civic Pledge": 

" We who are soon to become active citizens in this good city desire 
to see our city orderly, moral, well-mannered, and beautiful. We desire 
to have her possess a name which is above reproach. And we therefore 
agree to keep from littering her streets and so far as possible to prevent 
others from doing the same, in order that our city may be as clean as she 
is great, and as pure as she is free."' 

REFERENCE BOOKS RELATING TO INDIANA 
Aley, Robert J. and Max, Story of Indiana. 
Cockrum, William M., Pioneer History of Indiana. 
Conklin, Julia S., Young People's History of Indiana. 
Cottman, George S. and Hyman, Max, Centennial History of Indiana. 
Dillon, John B., History of Indiana to 1816. 
Dunn, Jacob P., Indiana; A Redemption from Slavery. 
English, William H., Conquest of the Northwest. 
Esarey, Logan, History of Indiana to 1S50. 
Hall, Baynard R-, The New Purchase. 
Hodgin, Indiana and the Nation, 42-47 (State Officers). 
Kemp, Government of Indiana. 
Levering, Julia H., Historic Indiana. 
Moore, A Century of Indiana. 
Nicholson, Meredith, The Hoosiers. 
Rawles, Civil Government of Indiana. 
Smith, W. H., History of Indiana. 
Thompson, Maurice, Stories of Indiana. 
Thornton, The Government of Indiana. 
Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest. 

Students of Indiana history would find valuable the Publications of 
the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Quarterly Magazine of 
History, published by Indiana University. 

* Waring, " Street Cleaning and Its Effects," p. 183. 



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